


Star vs the Forces of the Negative Multiverse

by Alkrolyd



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Bashing, Dimension Travel, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Star Butterfly/Marco Diaz, Evil Moon Butterfly, Evil Star Butterfly, F/M, Fanfiction, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Intermultiversal travel, Magic, Minor Character Death, Minor Star Butterfly/Marco Diaz, Minor Star Butterfly/Tom Lucitor, Minor child trauma, Multiverse, Negative Multiverse, Personal Growth, Season 3 AU, Season 4 AU, Svtfoe, Teenagers, The Magic High Commission (Star vs. The Forces Of Evil), starco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29736063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alkrolyd/pseuds/Alkrolyd
Summary: Adam grew up knowing about the Butterfly Family long before he ever met them. He knew of the Family's penchant for tyranny, cruelty and megalomania. He knew how they brutally enslaved, tortured or executed all who opposed them. The Butterflies are unstoppable and absolute - their dark shadow stretching across almost every dimension in the multiverse.So when Adam acquires magical powers from a mysterious fragment of a wand, he sets out on a mission to put an end to the Butterfly rule. Permanently.When an accident leaves him stranded in the heart of Mewni, Adam thinks he's a dead man. In one last ditch effort, he attempts an assassination on the heir to the Butterfly Throne: Star Butterfly. However, he soon realises he's on the wrong Mewni, hunting the wrong Star. Now, he's trapped there, surrounded by pale imitations of the dead and the faces of those he hates most. Unfortunately, Adam must work with them, if he is to ever return home.Unbeknownst to him, though, his world is catching up to him. The Dark Butterflies are coming, bringing a whole multiverse of slaughter with them. Whether he likes it or not, Adam is going to have to protect the kingdom he hated most.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	1. Out of Place

As he traversed through the dense blackened forest, he considered what direction he was going in. Was this east, or west? It was hard to tell when the thick clouds above blocked out the position of the sun. Looking up, he could see the clouds swirling and twisting together, flashes of lightning flickering inside them. He breathed in and silently counted how many years that storm had been brewing. Probably too long.

Longer than he’d ever known, for sure, so why was he counting?

Sighing, the figure reached into his pocket and produced a compass. He looked closely, but the ends of the compass spun perpetually, never resting on any compass direction. After the shaking it, he was dismayed to see it still had no effect. Wanting to smack himself on the forehead, he sighed again.

Compasses didn’t work here; not in this part of town. Not when the magic was so dense.

Truth be told, Adam had expected this. He’d heard about the incident here, and he needed to investigate. Perhaps, there would be something he could use in his future endeavours. After all, the castle had to contain _something_ in its depths that had survived the cataclysm.

Or perhaps, this was all some stupid fool’s crusade.

Adam’s foot collided with a rock, snapping him out of his thoughts. He watched as it skidded across the lands. Sickly pale green light shone down upon him, pushing away the shadows of the trees. Looking up, the young man could see the forest had ended, and the rocky mountain lands had begun. 

Exactly where he had wanted to be.

A huge crater, a hundred meters across or so, stood before him. Smoke still billowed from the seething remains of stone that had been left behind. If he looked closely, Adam could make out part of a roof of a castle lying on the ground far away from the blast radius.

His foot tripped on the rock he’d kicked earlier. Instantly, the man lost his balance, and he slid down the hill towards the crater. Managing to stick his hands out, Adam caught himself before he could face plant. Raising himself upright again, he stepped towards the edge of the crater.

His eyes widened. He spotted something at the bottom of the crater.

A charred skeleton. Flames looked to have licked the edges of the bones. It was a small set of bones, almost appearing like a child’s set, but it clearly had developed to that of an adult.

The widening in Adam’s eyes turned to a grim stare. He slid down the crater, veering ever closer to the burnt corpse. Inevitably, he found himself at its feet. Kneeling down, Adam carefully lifted the bony forearm and looked more closely. It was so small and weak in his hands, he was worried it would snap with only a tiny bit of pressure.

One close look confirmed his suspicions.

It was definitely a Kappa’s skeleton. He’d heard rumours of what had happened to the Kappa, but he wasn’t hoping to see it for himself. However, he couldn’t be surprised, knowing the culprit’s penchant for this kind of stuff.

He looked up at the smouldering pile of ash and rock that _was_ Castle Avarius.

Is _this_ what the Butterfly Princess called “collateral damage”?

Adam should have known. Firsthand, he had seen the kind of destruction she could cause. She could turn entire cities to ash and then claim it merely “got in the way” of whatever Monster she happened to be crushing.

He collapsed against the side of the crater. Eyes fixated on the skeleton, Adam coughed on the smoke.

Having seen his fair share of death, he wasn’t exactly scared of the blackened pile of bones that lay before him. However, he _certainly_ wasn’t any less disgusted by it. Was there any worse way to die than at the hands of a vicious Butterfly?

Rubbing his forehead, he wondered what he even expected to find here. The Butterfly Princess had caused the destruction of this entire castle, and it was rather unlikely she’d spared anything with such a powerful spell.

Then again, Adam had hoped her apathy towards the place led to her leaving things behind because she cared little for what became of this castle.

As he mulled over the nightmare that was Mewni, he began to notice a bright green light shining from between the rocks. Looking up, he noticed it began to brighten. Shuffling off the rock and stumbling to his feet, he nearly tripped as he approached the bright green light.

Hastily, he waded through the rocks to reveal what was hidden beneath. His eyes began to focus, showing him to what the green light really was.

‘Oh my god…’

Lying on the ground, there was a glass-like shard. It was a piece of a star, one end having been cut off in an erratic lightning bolt. It was a pale green, matching the skies above. It lay on the rock and mud, discarded.

 _Is this…_ _a piece of Star Butterfly’s wand?_

He’d heard the story about the events that unfolded at Castle Avarius. Princess Butterfly had destroyed her wand to incinerate Toffee, the leader of the Resistance. Most people would call this stupid, destroying the instrument of her magical presence. However, considering she didn’t _need_ the wand, and it restored itself soon afterwards, it was a fair trade to her.

What Adam _didn’t_ know was that, when destroying the wand, there could be _shards._ This one seemed to emanate major magical energy, too.

Intrigued, he tentatively reached down towards the star shard. It glowed and shone with magical intensity.

His finger made contact with the crystal.

Then, suddenly, the shard brightened to full intensity. He was nearly blinded by the strength of the magic. A powerful shockwave enveloped him, nearly blowing him back, if it hadn’t been for his contact with the crystal.

Wind whipped against his dirty black hair. Ashy waves smashed against the sides of the crater, sending fragments of rock catapulting into the air. The ground beneath his feet cracked and splintered, opening up crevices into the deep blackness of the earth.

Steadily, the teenager's finger began to glow. Great green vines of light began spreading across his skin. Concerned, he tried to remove himself from the object, but found himself glued to it. The magic spread through his existence, permeating his mind and binding him to the crystal.

Adam barely stifled a scream as the magic enveloped him completely. The last thing he could perceive was a huge magical explosion of emerald light.

* * *

Sometime later, Adam coughed. His eyes opened gingerly at first, scared to allow the light back in. Slowly, but surely, he opened his eyes. The everlasting pale green sky met his eyes with poignant stoicism. The Great Solarian Storm above remained twisting and turning in ferocious fashion.

The Mewman groaned and sat up. Rocky remnants lay scattered across the crater, identical, albeit in different positions from before. New cracks adorned the ground, through which he could see nothing but blackness.

In the corner of his eye, he spotted the scattered remains of Ludo. The skull had fractured against the craggy side of the crater.

Memories came flooding back to him. The star shard. The emerald magic.

A sharp, splitting pain pulsed in his right palm. His eyes snapped to his hand, the hand that had touched the wand crystal. In his hand, an outline of a star had been singed. A stench of burning flesh invaded his nostrils.

A star. A thought hit him like a stampede of Warnicorns.

Worriedly, Adam jumped to his feet and searched for the star shard. He dug through the rocks around him, hoping to catch a glimpse of the magical glow. It had been right beside him, he recalled. He can’t have passed out far from where it was. After all, the item seemed keen to keep him stuck to it.

The shard of Star Butterfly’s wand remained nowhere to be seen.

Adam thumped the ground, sending a wave of ashy rock an inch into the air. That shard could have been useful. If he could tap into just a fraction of its power, then he’d finally have a chance against the insane Moon and her deranged family of brutal warmongering psychopaths.

Rather, he’d gone and blown his one opportunity for revenge. Allowing himself to fall onto his back, thudding against the rock, he stared up at the war-torn sky.

How long had he been at this? He shook away the question. Of _course_ he knew, he remembered every second of his life since the Purge. Hard to forget, really. Perhaps, the universe had decided this was fate. The Butterflies would rule eternal, and the opposition, like him, would wither and die under their iron grip.

 _No._ Adam berated himself for even thinking that. He couldn’t give up. He’d be insulting the memory of his parents.

Breathing out gruffly, he began to pick himself up.

It was this moment, unfortunately, fate decided to play a cruel trick on him. Or at least, it seemed like it.

The sound of vigorous galloping permeated the air around him. The ground began to vibrate, the world coming to life. Adam glanced down, noticing the small fragments of rock bouncing up and down at each gallop.

Rising to his feet to the noise, he looked up at the edge of the crater to see something he really wished he hadn’t. A charge of Warnicorns came barrelling down the hill, all fully armoured and mounted by Mewman knights.

They stopped short of the crater.

 _How did they get here so quickly?_ He wondered desperately.

‘You there!’ A soldier barked. ‘State your name, rank and intention!’

‘Uh…’ he stumbled, trying to come up with an excuse. ‘I could ask you the same question.’

That remark awarded him several arrows fired at his feet.

‘I am not playing around, boy!’ The soldier persisted angrily. ‘We saw the explosion! Explain yourself!’

‘You see…’ Adam stalled, as his mind came up with something. ‘I’m just a weary traveller, um… I was hoping to cross the Groundlands…to, uh, sell my copper to the nearest village.’

‘Why are you in this crater?’

‘I saw the huge green explosion. As a traveller, you must understand that it piqued my interest.’

‘These are forbidden lands, boy,’ the knight pointed out. ‘A weary traveller must know that you cannot cross the Groundlands.’

‘I did know that…’ he claimed, smacking the back of head abashedly. ‘It’s just…it was…interesting.’

‘You are profoundly reckless!’ The knight scolded. ‘And a terrible liar. Men, take aim!’

‘No wait!’ Adam pleaded.

‘Steady!’

‘Please! I’m innocent!’

‘Fire!’

Unable to save himself, Adam covered his eyes with his arms. He heard the whipping of arrows skidding through the air towards him. He waited for the end to come. He waited to be met with his mother and father. He waited and waited.

And nothing happened.

Steadily, Adam removed his arms from his eyes. He allowed himself to view the sight before him. He couldn’t believe it.

Hovering before him, mere inches away from his face, were the arrows that should have killed him. Glowing mystical blue energy, the arrows had been stopped with a power he had _definitely_ seen before. Looking towards the Mewman knights, he could see they were just as shocked as he was. Even behind their helmets.

‘This is not possible,’ the leading knight said with a low voice. ‘This is the magic of the Butterfly.’

Adam looked around desperately, expecting, or hoping, to see a Butterfly some distance away, casting the spell. It must have been, but there was no reason for a Butterfly to save him. Looking around, there was no one to be seen.

‘I don’t…what?’ He mumbled in shock.

‘He’s stolen magic!’ A knight yelled.

‘He is tainting the well!’ Another added.

‘Knights,’ the knight leader addressed, his voice shaking. ‘Charge!’

In an instant, the Mewman knights on their Warnicorns were speeding towards him with unparalleled force.

‘Wait-wait-wait!’ He pleaded, stretching his arms out in a halting position.

The knights didn’t stop. However, neither had the arrows.

Less than a second after Adam had outstretched his hands, the arrows swivelled around to face the charging men. With speeds outclassing the Warnicorns, they zipped towards the knights. Each one impaled themselves through the heads of their steeds, burrowing through. Once they ended them, they sped through the heads of the knights who rode on the Warnicorns, all in one smooth motion.

The lifeless bodies of Mewmans and Warnicorns skidded to a halt at his feet.

Adam stepped back, unable to believe what he had just witnessed. He stared at his shaking hands.

The outline of a star glowed yellowish-white in his hands. It was the same shape as was burned into his right hand, and the same shape as Star Butterfly’s wand. Magic. He had just cast _magic._

So many questions permeated his mind that he couldn’t keep up. Adam was sure he’d faint, but nevertheless, he persisted.

One thing was sure to him, however. He had to run. There were several bodies at his feet, and soon enough, Queen Moon was going to wonder why one of her pillaging parties had not reported in on time. He couldn’t stay here.

Adam turned and ran.

* * *

Adam knew he was getting better at this. He had to be, right?

 _‘Crimson Comet!_ ’ He yelled, sticking his arms flat out. A bright fiery ball erupted from his hands, speeding across the room towards his training dummy.

The dummy was fireproof, for the most part. The ball of flames collided with it with great enough force to slightly edge it sideways. The fabric was singed, but otherwise remained untouched.

Adam walked up to the dummy and padded it down to ensure there were no flames hiding beneath. As he returned to his practicing spot, he wished he were actually skilled at this.

“Crimson Comet” was about the only spell he could do.

Ever since the incident at Castle Avarius two weeks ago, the young man found he could cast magic. He didn’t know how exactly, only that the star shard had imbued him with this power. It was good news, he supposed, since he could now potentially stand a chance against a Butterfly.

If he practiced enough, that is.

After the whole incident, he ran back to his hideout. It was an old bunker his family had constructed, in times of crisis. It was somewhere on Mewni, some hidden location far from any prospecting Butterflies. It was small, but homely. The only window he had to the outside world was a small rectangle cut out in the stone, which most times shone in a purplish tint into his room.

A bed sat flush against the wall, just below the window. It was a small frame, a little too small for him. The walls were adorned with nicks and marks, with multiple cracks in the stone. However, he had managed to find _one_ decoration to adorn the walls. It was a dirty, tattered poster of Toffee, with the words “PEACE” and “FREEDOM” in white bold text. Adam had found it on the ground, underneath all the mud.

About the only bit of culture he had was a guitar leaning on the wall in the corner. His parents had thoughtfully left it there for him to entertain himself.

He could leave whenever he liked, of course. Adam had to, in order to farm his food.

Still, it was a humble existence he had grown used to by now. His magic, however, he had _not_ grown used to.

 _‘Ropes of Binding!’_ He screamed. He hoped ropes would emerge from his palms to latch onto the training dummy. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

A few sparks tumbled out his palms, but nothing otherwise occurred.

The disappearance of one of the Mewman pillaging parties did not go unnoticed, of course. His contact in Mewni had provided him with the information about it. Queen Moon send a search and rescue team to find them, and find them, they did. They found the rotting corpses in the crater of Castle Avarius.

Most people in the Kingdom considered this some sort of barbarian Monster attack. They thought that a group of organised Monsters had ambushed them and killed them. This notion did not surprise Adam. All Monsters were evil to these people. Of course, the Royal Family ensured them that they would hunt down these Monsters and execute them.

Simple speak to calm the masses. Apparently, Queen Moon was concerned. Perhaps even scared. Butterflies could sense magic, not that she really needed to in order to tell this wasn’t a simple Monster attack. The Warnicorns had been impaled through the head, but there was no visible weapon to have done this. For, the only weapon that could have, were the arrows, which were lodged into the heads of the knights.

Moon wasn’t so stupid to think Monsters carefully removed arrows from the beasts’ heads and then fired them at the soldiers. Especially not while the knights were _riding_ them.

Although his contact couldn’t confirm it, Adam had a sneaky suspicion Moon would ask her daughter about it. After all, she was the last known person at Castle Avarius. Not that this would even help. The girl would know nothing.

Ultimately, this unknown force of magic would scare the queen.

Adam smiled. He was proud of himself to make the cruel ruler afraid. She deserved much more than just suffering a little fear, though. If – _when_ – he mastered his new magic, he would storm the castle and get his revenge.

He’d have Moon Butterfly’s head on a pike first, of course. After all, she was the main cause of all his pain. Then it would be Star Butterfly’s head next. All the pain and torment she caused him, though she probably didn’t remember who he was. He was a little ashamed to admit the image of their heads on pikes gave him a wicked sense of happiness.

As he stared at the training dummy, musing over the thousand possible ways to kill Moon Butterfly, a thought came to him. He’d seen the Queen and her daughter cast quite powerful spells, but he’d also seen a few they’d cast with terrifying ease. Moon seemed fond of this laser-type spell that could burn through almost anything. In fact, she’d even be able to teach it to her daughter.

_What was the name of the spell again?_

He searched his mind for the memory.

* * *

_Queen Moon stood on a rock, overseeing the town of Salem. She was in her normal state, no need for her full Mewberty form just yet. She glanced up as her Pegasuses flew overhead, as the riders fired arrows at the Monsters below._

_Bored of the slow pace this was going at, the Queen ultimately decided that she would get involved. Clasping her hands together, she began to do a spell. She deftly slid her hands in each other, spinning and turning them until they were connected at the palms. Pointing her opening hands at the village, she spoke the words._

_‘Solarian Blast!’_

* * *

Solarian Blast. The memory of the strike came flooding back to him. It wasn’t an awfully powerful spell, he recalled, so perhaps he could do it, too. If he could conjure even a fraction of Moon’s power, then perhaps he wasn’t so hopeless.

Exhaling to calm his senses, Adam clasped his hands together. He began repeating the movements he’d remembered Moon had done, although the young man could tell he was an amateur at it. Inevitably, he came to point his hands at the training dummy.

‘ _Solarian…Blast!’_

A violent green laser shot out from the glowing star marks on his hands. It was untamed, wild, but strong. It blasted through the training dummy in an instant, setting it alight emerald flames.

However, what Adam _wasn’t_ expecting was for the laser to come bounding back at him. The beam hit him square in the chest, sending him catapulting back against the stone wall behind him. He heard something crack, but he really hoped it wasn’t any bones. Groaning, Adam looked down at his chest. The laser left a large burn mark on his chest, through which smoke and the scent of burning skin rose from. Fortunately, though, the beam did not blast straight through him like he expected.

Perhaps it wasn’t possible for his _own_ spells to kill him. Or harm him too badly.

Stretching painfully, Adam picked himself back up again.

A blue forcefield covered the area of the wall behind him. It was cracked through the middle. Adam didn’t recall casting this spell, so it must have been fight or flight. He breathed a sigh of relief to know that it wasn’t his bones that had cracked.

He looked down at his hands. The star outline had faded away, now that he wasn’t currently using any magic. Though, the burn mark on his right hand remained permanent.

That was the second spell he’d been able to cast. Perhaps magic took some steely conviction to function. He’d poured some of the emotions from the memory of Queen Moon’s assault on Salem into his Solarian Blast. Sure, the beam he’d conjured was nowhere near as powerful as Moon’s, but it was something. If he practiced it enough times, he’d at least be able to fire it without the beam hitting him back.

Adam merely couldn’t deny that this was promising to him. The Butterfly Family wouldn’t know what hit them.

* * *

Two months later, the young Mewman was proud of himself for getting somewhere.

He’d mastered the Solarian Blast. By ‘mastered’, he meant he could cast it without hitting himself with it. It was possibly the most powerful spell he could cast, but it wasn’t much compared to Moon. Or even Star. However, he was still a beginner.

Crimson Comet was his go-to at the current time. He could cast it with ease and with speed. Sometimes, he didn’t even need to speak the words, only think them. The stars in his hands would light up, and the fiery ball would speed out with ferocity. No wonder the Butterfly Princess liked the spell so much.

That and she could use it to burn anyone she didn’t like.

Ropes of Binding still failed him. However, Adam had managed to summon a few narwhals to torpedo his enemies. Truth be told, it was an effective spell.

What he wished he could do was create his _own_ spells. All the ones he’d learnt so far were ones he’d seen the Butterflies do. However, he was certain that they’d created some of these spells themselves.

_I mean, c’mon. Flying narwhals? There’s no way that’s a normal spell in the spell book._

That’s when it hit him! A spell book!

He knew the Butterfly family had a royal Book of Spells. He’d seen the princess lugging it around a few times, whenever he was in the kingdom. It was big, and old, and almost certainly had enough magical knowledge to last him lifetime.

Everything he needed was in there. There was just one small problem. There was absolutely _no_ way he was going to be able to get a hold of it.

If he knew how to infiltrate the Butterfly Castle, he would have attempted ages ago. Sure, he hadn’t had magic before, but the element of surprise would perhaps allow him to kill Star Butterfly. It was so much easier said than done.

However, he _really_ needed that spell book. More so than the princess. She most likely only used it to learn the cruellest spells.

Adam had to come up with a plan. Even if it took him _months._

* * *

Planning he did. It took him a long time, to find the right moment to snatch up the book. Opportunity, fortunately, knocked when the Butterfly Princess left Mewni. She went to Earth, apparently, a place he knew of but had never been to.

Knowing the Butterfly family, Adam was surprised they hadn’t already conquered this dimension. It was hardly like any other dimension could measure up to the power and scope of Mewni. That being said, Adam had never actually _travelled_ to other dimensions. He knew such things were possible, not uncommon, but when would he ever have that opportunity?

Today, apparently.

With the help of his contact in the kingdom, he was able to smuggle himself into the Butterfly kingdom. He’d studied the timetables of the staff in the castle, down to the last detail. At precisely 16:43pm, Mewman Time, nobody was present to guard the royal dimensional scissors. It was a two minute window where the guards usually nipped to the toilet. Typically, one would take its place, but he had reliable information that the guard that was supposed to do so had eaten a particularly bad piece of corn the night prior.

The guard would spend at least two minutes vomiting in the bathroom before hurrying to his post.

He could use this time to his advantage, almost certainly. Then he could take the dimensional scissors to travel to Earth. His contact had told her he should travel to this graveyard in this place called Echo Creek. 

Adam lowered himself on the roof so that he was level with the small window. Carefully, he slid through, briefly batting an eye behind him to ensure nobody had spotted him. All good so far.

He just hoped the info was good. Adam wasn’t sure how his contact had managed to come about such specific information, but she told him that she was very observant. Creepily observant, perhaps, considering how easily she could sneak around without being noticed.

He’d known her for a couple years, but was still unable to determine how she managed to do what she did. After all, she was only human. Yet, she could elude some of the smartest Mewmans. A magician would never reveal their secrets, of course, so it wasn’t like he was going to find out.

Nonetheless, Adam knew he could trust her. He knew how much she despised the Butterfly’s rule over the kingdom. She was willing to do virtually anything to see that goal come to fruition.

Even if it meant befriending her worst enemy.

Adam had wished _she_ could steal the spell book for him. However, she wasn’t that stupid. Realistically, she wouldn’t get much out of helping him, so the most she would do for him was what she already knew. He was mostly on his own for this task, which hadn’t been uncommon since Beru died. Since he was _murdered._ He couldn’t give up on him, or his parents. Not when the chance of revenge – of righting the most evil wrong – was on the horizon.

Looking down into the hall below, Adam could see the guard leaving his post. His breath hitched. In two minutes, roughly, the guard that would take his place would hurriedly return from his corn-induced vomiting session.

He couldn’t fly.

Not yet, anyway. He's heard that Butterflies could do it, but only once they had attained a very high magical skill level. So there was a fat chance he’d be able to do it right now. Even though his spells were getting stronger, and his arsenal was increasing, he was still mostly incompetent.

As an incompetent man would do, he resorted to using other means. His contact helpfully provided him with a cable and wire to tether himself against the roof and lower into the royal vault. Every few seconds, he glanced down at his feet, ensuring he didn’t slip on the stony walls.

He felt almost like a spy of the Resistance. Had the Resistance not been dissolved, Adam would’ve hoped he could now be a part of it. Even though he wasn’t a “Monster” – in terms of species – like the rest of them.

Silently landing on the ground, Adam pressed his back against a nearby metal display case. Forcefully, he tried to keep down the shivering in his bones, though his teeth chattered slightly audibly. Had it not been for the silence of the situation, he would have groaned at his body’s reluctance for cooperation.

He crept around the corner. Nobody was watching.

A metallic glint caught his eye. He turned to where his peripherals had been and ultimately spotted what he had been looking for.

The royal dimensional scissors. They were coated in a gold paint of some sort, and crusted with red and blue jewels. It sat on a mount on top of a plinth in the centre of the room. It wasn’t exactly well-protected, but not for long. He had to take advantage of this small window.

The sound of a toilet door opening reverberated through the hall. Adam’s eyes widened.

In an instant, he bolted into a sprint. He could hear the squeaking against the floor, but if he could get the scissors now, he could escape faster than they could catch him.

His fingers clasped around the scissors, sliding into the two holes. Leaving no room for hesitation, Adam opened the scissors and tore through the air.

_Earth…Echo Creek…Graveyard!_

A blue portal appeared in front of him, with a blue spiral spinning into the centre. Adam threw himself through the portal, narrowly closing it behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the first chapter of 'Star vs the Forces of the Negative Multiverse'! Hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> I've been sitting on this story for a while, actually, but I finally decided to start writing up some of it. I think the idea of a Negative Multiverse was too good to simply ignore, and I figured I could put my own spin on it. There will be a few times where Adam is referred to as from a different "universe" instead of "multiverse" - the universe is referring to his Mewni (also called a parallel dimension), while "multiverse" of course refers to the multiverse he's from as a whole. 
> 
> This chapter is technically more of a prologue, I suppose, considering there are multiple time jumps in this chapter alone. Further chapters will seldom use time jumps; this one mainly included it so we could get up to speed with Adam getting, learning and using magic. Given he's just a Mewman, he's never used magic before, so him learning to use it would logically take a lot of training and practice.
> 
> This is mainly skipping past the boring parts of him learning to cast a few basic spells. 
> 
> This won't be the last time we see him practice his magic, though! He'll definitely get better at it, and there will be a 2-year time jump for him to learn it later on, but we will see him training and practicing all throughout the story. It's just that it would not be terribly interesting if I wrote pages and pages of prose detailing every bit of practice he underwent. We'll see Adam getting more powerful over the course of the story, but when he first gets his powers, he's, of course, quite weak. 
> 
> As with that cliffhanger, well, he WILL be travelling to Echo Creek next chapter. To a graveyard. A few clever people might be able to deduce exactly what point in this Multiverse timeline this is for Star (in comparison to its equivalent in the other multiverse). The two different multiverses do not have timelines that run in parallel to one another, though. Anyways, the next chapter's definitely going to be fun. 
> 
> NOTE: I know we have already seen alternate versions of Star in "Mathmagic", but I'm henceforth stating those are parallel TIMELINES, not parallel UNIVERSES (or multiverses). Omnitraxus refers to them as both, if I remember correctly, but I'm going to technically retcon that so it is specifically the former not the latter. 
> 
> Omni will show up later and explain this, anyway. Given that Star has only seen alternate versions of herself once, and has never seen someone travelling between them without breaking the space-time continuum, I think I can comfortably say that she won't instantly realise that Adam is from an alternate domain.


	2. Enter the Butterfly

He fell through a vortex of bright cyan light, before he landed on the ground with a thud. He groaned and began to pick himself up. The ground was brownish purple, the grass darkened by the moonlit night. Looking up, Adam realised he had landed in front of a gravestone.

The night sky was silent and starless. The moon shone with bright yellow intensity across the dark blue canvas. It was a great big blot on the sky that imposed on the land like a dimming torch.

Adam looked around him. He was in a field dotted with numerous gravestones. A growth of moss covered a few of the names on the weathered stone. They looked almost sunken in the ground, slowly to be claimed by Mother Nature. If he looked closely, he could even make out the shapes of dust and grime where raindrops had fallen on the stone and dried.

 _This must be the place,_ he presumed.

‘Ugh, you _better_ be right about this whole “Bon Bon” thing,’ a voice groaned. Adam’s eyes widened. He knew that voice, easily. Still, he could not prevent his body from peeking out to see. He saw a particularly polarising figure, and instantly wished he hadn’t looked.

Star Butterfly trudged through the mud in the graveyard with a frustrated furrow on her brow.

Adam sputtered as he felt the air being punched out of him. He could only stare for a few seconds as the magical murderer walked closer to the gravestone he hid behind. She wasn’t much older than the last time he saw her, both physically and mentally. Not that this princess would remember _him._ Not like she was ever going to read the list of the wanted on Mewni.

He managed to regain enough composure, to pull back and hide behind the gravestone once again. Taking a few breaths to calm himself, he began to realise what the contact had in mind. Star was _never_ going to leave her Magic Instruction Book unattended, so realistically he could only steal it in a moment of distraction.

Slowing his heart rate with a few breaths, he peeped around the gravestone again.

‘Dude, trust me, this’ll work,’ a voice ensured her to her left. Adam frowned. He recognised that voice too. He looked closer to see who the Butterfly Princess was with.

It was another girl, around the princess’s age. Her hair was curt, dark blue and almost hidden. She wore a greenish-yellow beanie, a blue jacket, yellow skirt, dark green t-shirt and brown boots. In her hands she was carrying a cardboard box and a yellow torchlight around her head. She had a surprisingly nonchalant expression on her face, despite being next to one of the most powerful magical users in the multiverse.

‘Janna?!’ He recognised, covering his mouth to muffle the noise he made. Fortunately, Star didn’t seem to hear anything. He breathed a small sigh of relief but continued to watch them with an inquisitive look.

His contact hadn’t told him _she,_ herself, would be present when he tried to steal the spellbook! Sure, he knew she was pretending to be friends with the Butterfly Heir but…he hadn’t expected her to put herself on the line like this. After all, she could very well die!

Then again, how else was the Butterfly going to get distracted? Someone had to provide him the window of opportunity. Who better than someone who _knew_ her?

He smacked himself on the forehead silently. Adam should have at least _suspected_ this. The young man wanted to chide himself for his stupidity, but now wasn’t the time. Especially not when Janna had put her life on the line for him.

Adam leaned in and tried to listen to the conversation.

‘I don’t wanna be on Earth _any_ longer than I _have_ to,’ the arrogant princess complained. Janna raised an eyebrow.

‘You’ve been on Earth before,’ she pointed out. ‘You were living here, for like, two months!’

‘Unwillingly!’ Star corrected pointedly. ‘I killed someone who annoyed me and my mom was all like “No Star, no Star, only kill when you have to, not when you want to!”’ She did a particularly crude impression of her mother, raising her back flat to look more regal. She folded her arms childishly after she finished.

Janna’s expression flickered. She glanced down at the ground for a moment. When she said nothing, Star continued.

‘But killing is _fun!’_ she insisted. Adam wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Janna or her perception of her mother. ‘ _And_ it gets me out of all my problems! Mom sent me here to learn some wisdom or whatever, but the kid I was living with always laughed at me, so…I _stopped_ him laughing.’ She smiled. ‘Then Mom _had_ to bring me home.’

Janna froze, staring at the Butterfly Princess who happened to be in front of her.

‘You…uh…’ she stammered.

‘What?’ Star asked with an exasperated tone. ‘C’mon, you said we could only raise Bon Bon at the right time.’

‘M-Mr and Mrs Diaz said it was a car crash…’ the girl recounted shakily. The princess laughed at that comment as though it was a humorous anecdote.

‘Well, _of course_ they did,’ she replied, a comedic tone peppering her voice. As she said that, her voice suddenly dropped to a deadly serious tone. ‘They value their lives.’

Janna coughed abruptly, trying to maintain her composure.

‘C-Cool.’

Star smiled brightly and grabbed her hand.

‘Yeah, it’s cool!’ She exclaimed. ‘You know, Janna, you really _get_ me!’

‘Um, thanks,’ she responded awkwardly, allowing the magical princess to drag her towards Bon Bon’s gravestone.

As Janna was dragged by Star, her eyes made contact with Adam. Her eyes widened, as though she’d forgotten he was even there. The Mewman gave her a sympathetic nod. The girl nodded back, but this time with more conviction.

He breathed out steadily. All he had to do now was watch and wait for the right moment.

Adam watched as Star found the grave for Bon Bon the Birthday Clown. She seemed strangely enamoured with the figure. Maybe she found some kind of fascination in dark spirits. This notion didn’t really surprise him, to be honest.

Star lazily produced her wand and put together the shrine for the Birthday Clown. Adam didn’t even know why she bothered using the wand at all; she didn’t really need it. Perhaps it was a display of power. Or maybe she just _liked_ using it.

Janna attempted to create the summoning circle for Bon Bon, but her hand would not stop shaking. She drew the white pentagram, but she lost her balance on the ground and the marker slipped. Adam’s heart skipped a beat for a moment.

 _C’mon Janna, you can pull through,_ he thought.

‘Well,’ the girl said shakily. ‘This…should, um, do it.’

Star turned to look in her direction. She leant down to inspect the summoning circle on the ground. The princess frowned.

‘It’s okay…’ she supposed, a hint of discontent in her voice. ‘It’s not very _impressive,_ but it’ll do.’

‘Er…hopefully,’ she stuttered. ‘How is the, the, shrine coming along?’

‘It’s… _perrrr-feect!’_ The Butterfly exclaimed energetically, leaning an arm against her creation. It was bright, and vibrant, full of different decorations, like flowers and bottles and even some tinsel. Several candles had been lit across it, their luminosity magically magnified. Adam’s eyes narrowed. Star seemed to like these things, he supposed, but also enjoyed destroying them.

 _I guess some things are so cute you just have to punch ‘em,_ the Mewman considered with disgust.

‘It looks…nice,’ the Earth girl said jaggedly. Star scowled at her.

‘Janna,’ she said to her gravely. ‘Are you…lying to me?’

‘What, no, no, definitely not!’ She assured her worriedly, throwing up her hands defensively. ‘It’s just…hard to put into words how awesome it is!’

There was a momentary pause, before Star gave her a bright smile.

‘Aww, thanks, Janna Banana!’ She acknowledged, wrapping the girl in a tight hug. Petrified still, the young girl didn’t return the hug. Fortunately, though, Star didn’t seem to notice.

‘Yeah…anytime, Star,’ she said with a nervous laugh, as she set down a large cake in the centre of the pentagram.

‘So,’ Star announced, picking up something that was out of Adam’s sight. She groaned with fatigue, before thumping something on the ground.

It was big and old, its leathery cover turning greenish-brown over time. Several loose bits of paper stuck out from the edges of the pages, as though they were haphazardly added footnotes. An upright figure-eight symbol, like a flattened out number eight, was embedded in the centre. It was pierced through the centre with what looked like a red arrow with a head shaped like a hand. In either loop, there were two jewels, both half pale green, half orange.

The Magic Instruction Book. That was it!

Hopefully, Star would be away from the spellbook long enough for him to draw it towards him. He watched as the Butterfly Princess flicked through the pages.

‘Necromancy…necromancy…where’s Glossaryck when you need him?’ She mused, scanning the pages she flicked through. ‘Ah! Here it is. Necromancy Summoning Spell! Hm…looks like we just insert the name into the spell when we speak the incantation.’

Janna moved over to have a look, momentarily inquisitive.

‘ _Capable of raising the most powerful of spirits_ ,’ she read, following the line across the page with her finger. _‘Warning: may cause spectral unrest._ This is _so_ cool!’

‘Absolutely!’ Star concurred. ‘I’ve always wondered what my victims would say if I brought them back. Maybe if this works we can try it on that karate boy.’

Janna’s breath hitched at the mention of him. She exhaled wearily, before swallowing the air in her mouth in a gulp. Her neck locked into place and her arms jerked under the pressure against the ground. Fortunately, Star didn’t seem to notice Janna’s reaction.

‘Uh, yeah, maybe,’ she finally uttered after a few seconds. Star picked up her wand and held it towards the girl.

‘C’mon, you have to hold the wand with me,’ she told her with an annoyed frown. Reluctantly, Janna held part of the wand’s handle below Star’s hand. ‘Now say it with me…’

Both of them looked back to the spellbook.

* * *

**_‘We call into the depths of the unknown,_ **

**_We plead you return to thy mortal throne_ **

**_Bon Bon, we summon thee as a ghost_ **

**_Thy spirit returns to us innermost!’_ **

* * *

The candles in the shrine blew out, along with the candles around the circle. The white pentagram Janna had drawn began to glow, and the gravity around them seemed to loosen. The candles began to float into the air. Even Star’s long hair began to float up, just behind her head.

And then, nothing.

The candles dropped to the ground, and the pentagram stopped glowing. Gravity returned to this part of the dimension, enforcing its laws once again.

Star frowned exasperatedly. ‘What happened?!’

‘Uh, I don’t know,’ Janna confessed, her eyes flickering towards Adam.

‘You _better not_ have just wasted my time!’ The princess yelled furiously.

‘I-I didn’t!’ she defended herself. ‘Um, maybe we did bring him back, but he’s stuck in his coffin! You need to get him out!’

Star eyed her closely for a few moments, before nodding.

‘You might be right,’ she ultimately agreed, getting up and walking towards the ground by Bon Bon’s grave. She cracked her knuckles. ‘Step back, little people like you _probably_ wouldn’t survive this if you’re too close.’

Janna gulped and stepped away.

 _‘Narwhal Blast!’_ She yelled, unleashing a ray of narwhals. ‘ _Narwhal Blast! Narwhal Blast!’_

Seeing the opportunity with the commotion, Janna spun around and faced Adam. She mouthed the word ‘NOW!’ at him.

‘ _Levitato!_ ’ He whispered, pointing his hand at the book. Adam was glad he had taken the time to learn the pretty common spell.

The Magic Instruction Book was then encased in blue glowing magic, and it steadily rose into the air. Gesturing towards his chest, he caused the book to fly into his hands in a matter of seconds. It was heavier than the young man expected, but he managed.

Adam could not even take a moment to congratulate himself on his success. He hastily pulled out the dimensional scissors, and was about to open a portal away, when he realised something.

Janna. He couldn’t just leave her behind.

Not wanting to put her in any more danger, he peeked back around the gravestone. The girl saw him and stared back at him with a worried expression. Obviously, she’d expected him to be gone by now. Adam beckoned her to come to him, and she nodded.

Cautious not to alert Star, she practically tiptoed towards the gravestone. She was about halfway there, when–

‘–Janna?’ A voice commanded from behind her. She turned to see Star staring back at her. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Uh…’ she stuttered. ‘Well, your spells are so strong I felt I needed to take a few more steps back. Don’t wanna be…y’know, fried ‘n’ stuff.’

‘That’s probably a good…’ Star began, her voice trailing off as she glanced around the area. Instantly, she knew what was wrong. ‘Where’s the Book of Spells?’

‘Uh…’

‘ _Janna._ Where is it?’

‘It was right there, wasn’t it?’ She said gingerly, gesturing to the ground where the book had been.

‘I know where it _was;_ I wanna know where it is _right now!’_

‘It’s, um…’

‘ _Janna!’_ Boomed Star, causing the grass to shiver. The heart-shaped marks on her cheeks glowed with burning red ferocity. ‘ **Where. Is. The. Book!?** ’

‘I don’t–!’

In that moment, fortunately or not, Star’s compact rang. It was a screeching noise, like a cat dragged across a blackboard and deep-fried in oil. It definitely disturbed Janna, but Star seemed to…dance to the tune. She did, at least, until she realised she needed to answer the call.

_‘Star.’_

‘Mom?!’ She exclaimed. ‘What do _you_ want? I’m in the middle of something here!’

_‘And what exactly are you up to, young lady?’_

‘Hanging out with this human, Janna!’

_‘Does that involve hopping to other dimensions, by any chance?’_

‘What? No!’

 _‘Star, tell the truth!’_ Moon demanded. _‘SOMEONE has stolen the royal dimensional scissors! We’ve been bending over backwards over the last hour to find out who took it!’_

‘ _Moooom,_ I didn’t take the scissors!’

_‘Maybe not you, but from what we can tell, this was from a human! Did you happen to aid this “Janna” in taking it?’_

‘Janna? Nah, she’s not that…’ Star initially refuted, before looking up at Janna.

She’d been shivering, but it wasn’t cold. Her breaths were curt and quick, but the air wasn’t that thin in here. She had seemed largely out of focus, today, too. Janna _clearly_ didn’t think she had noticed.

‘Mom…I’m gonna have to call you back,’ she responded coldly, closing the lid and ending the call, despite Moon’s protests.

‘Now, Star, whatever you’re thinking –’ Janna began.

‘You took the scissors didn’t you?!’ She accused. ‘And _now_ you’re trying to take my BOOK OF SPELLS! HOW DARE YOU!’

‘Woah, woah, woah, I’d never do that! How could you say that?’

‘You’ve been nervous _all_ night. You could barely focus! I bet you just lured me out here so you could take my spellbook and run!’

‘Nervous?!’ Janna spat. ‘Maybe that has something to do with you _murdering_ the guy I liked!’

‘Murder?’ Star questioned, almost taken aback by the accusation. ‘He was collateral damage! He got in the way…and I don’t _like_ when people _get in my way_.’

Janna backed away from her, moving to her left. Adam realised she was moving away from the gravestone to keep Star from finding him.

‘So, what? Am I in your way now?’

‘ _You most certainly are.’_

‘You’re a murderer, Star!’ She scorned, spitting at her. ‘All you want to do is watch the world burn! And you don’t care how many innocent lives you destroy as you do it!’

‘No, I don’t,’ she agreed coldly. ‘I’ll give you one warning: _give me my book back, and the scissors, or else._ ’

‘He’ll come for you,’ Janna replied, ignoring the warning. ‘And when he does, you’ll learn what it’s like to be afraid.’

‘Who?’ Star demanded.

‘The man with the magic.’

There was pregnant silence between them for a few seconds. Then, the Butterfly burst out laughing.

‘ _I don’t think so.’_

Before Adam could fully determine what was going on, a huge beam of yellow light erupted from the princess’s wand. It engulfed Janna. An ear-piercing scream echoed through the graveyard, nearly deafening Adam. That was the last he saw of the girl, as she was bathed in yellow light, until it died down.

What was left behind was a charred corpse. Its feet were fused into the ground, where the mud had melted and caught the bone. Thin trails of fresh smoke rose from the skull and ribcage. No flesh or clothing had survived the blast. The jaw still hung open in shock.

Adam barely had time to process this. His fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, and he opened a portal out from under him. He fell through it and closed it up before Star could suspect anything.

Sighing, the Butterfly Princess took out her compact and redialled her mom. As the ringing tone began to play, she absentmindedly flicked the side of Janna’s cranium.

When her mom finally picked up, she began to explain herself.

‘Soooo…good news and bad news,’ the girl admitted between her teeth.

_‘What’s the good news?’_

‘I found the culprit. Janna took the scissors, but it’s not on her, so she must have hidden it.’

_‘That sounds like bad news, Star.’_

‘No, the bad news is that she took the spellbook too, but I don’t know where she put it.’

_‘Did you try interrogating her?’_

‘I did, but…’ her voice trailed off, as she moved the camera on the compact to show her mother Janna’s skeleton. ‘She didn’t really feel like talking.’

_‘Ugh, Star! That girl is…WAS…our only lead! That was PROFOUNDLY reckless of you!’_

‘Yeah, but…she annoyed me!’

_‘Get back here this instant young lady!’_

‘Ughhhh,’ she groaned. _‘Coming.’_ She hung up. Staring out onto the empty graveyard, she sighed. ‘One of these days, Mom, I’ll be more powerful than you. Let’s see who’s calling the shots _then._ ’

* * *

With a harsh thud, Adam landed on the stony floor of his bunker home. He almost landed face-first, but fortunately a forcefield formed in front of him to block it. The portal above him soon closed, and everything went silent.

Adam pulled himself over and onto his back, leaning against the wall behind him. Heaving, he threw the Magic Instruction Book off his chest.

He tried not to hyperventilate. A wave of nausea hit his stomach, preventing him from getting up. Adam smacked his dry lips, coating them with saliva. The sounds of Janna’s screams still rang in his ears so strongly he had to clasp his hands to them to bear it.

Adam felt like he was going to die. Any moment now, Star Butterfly would burst into his room and incinerate him like Janna. His stomach churned uncomfortably, making him want to vomit. However, no vomit came.

Adam coughed. He felt like the air had been punched out of him in an instant. Nevertheless, he tried to calm himself. The young man began to breathe slow, deep breaths, trying not to cough as he did so.

_Happy thoughts, Adam, think happy thoughts…_

He began to imagine his life before the Purge. When he lived with his adoptive parents, who loved him very much. The little town of Salem was fairly unassuming, but it was homely. The bright warm fireplace was wonderful to sit by, and sometimes he did so for hours on end. Adam recalled how his mom used to read him bedtime stories, stories of the great leader Toffee and his rag-tag group of rebels who defeated the evil Queens of the Butterfly Kingdom. He remembered the tale of the Last Hero, Crankulus, who fought gods and demons. His dad used to try to scare him with silly myths about the Bogeyman, though it never managed to frighten him.

Thoughts on his best friend, Beru, crossed his mind. He tried not to think too far, considering what happened to him.

Beru and Adam used to travel through the cornfields whenever they had no chores to complete. Adam would always be the one chasing after them, as he would play the Butterfly and Beru would play the innocent Monster.

Adam laughed when he remembered one of the times he caught Beru when they played this game. His friend claimed, persistently, that it didn’t count, for some unorthodox reason. Rather staunchly, he had disagreed with him. Truthfully, the Mewman argued that the rules were pretty concrete, though Beru said they never established any rules.

In fact, Adam repeated this sentiment to him when he grabbed his horns to catch him. Beru didn’t appreciate that too much, since Adam had no horns of the sort.

Slowly, he felt his heart rate go back down. He began to feel calm again, though the image of Janna’s skeleton was seared into his brain. He took a few more deep breaths, and finally managed to calm himself.

His contact – his _friend_ – was gone, but at least he had the spellbook. Adam’s eyes wandered to the old tome. He was almost scared to touch it.

_No. Janna died for me to get this book. I’m not going to let that sacrifice be in vain._

He moved over to the book, sitting on his knees in front of it. Gingerly, the Mewman opened the Book of the Spells, the pages spilling out in front of him. Searching for the contents page, Adam flicked to the start.

Nothing. No contents page. What kind of book, of _this_ size, wouldn’t have a contents page?

‘It’s in the middle,’ a voice told him in his ear.

‘ _AH!’_ Adam yelled, recoiling back from the book instantly. He looked around to find the source of the voice. Eventually, his eyes came back to the Magic Instruction Book. ‘You…you can talk?’

‘Of course I can talk!’ The voice responded rather matter-of-factly. Before Adam can reply, something popped into his view in front of him.

Flying around in front of him was a small, red-skinned man wearing a cream toga with an alarmingly short skirt. A disturbingly large amount of his legs was exposed to the elements, hairy and long. His head was semi-rectangular shaped, rounded at the top. A light blue crystal was embedded into his forehead, which reflected the glint from the sunlight perfectly.

‘Who are _you?’_ Adam inquired inquisitively.

‘I am Glossaryck,’ Glossaryck introduced himself. ‘I’m the guide of the Magic Instruction Book. And _you_ must be my liege.’

‘Glossaryck…she mentioned someone called Glossaryck,’ he recalled, blinking at the memory.

‘Your name?’ The small man asked him.

‘Hm? Oh. Adam.’

‘Mm…you have any pudding?’ The magical guide asked him inexplicably. Adam frowned.

‘What?’

‘ _Pudding._ Do…you…have…any?’ He replied sanctimoniously.

‘Sorry, what’s “pudding”?’

‘Oh, you haven’t been around Earth have you?’ Glossaryck realised with sadness. ‘Pudding is an amazing creation of chocolaty-goodness.’

‘Are you here to help me with my spells?’ Adam asked him, his patience running thin.

‘Of course I am,’ he confirmed, raising his eyebrow curiously. ‘Isn’t that why you stole the book?’

‘You, uh, know about that?’

‘Yeah but don’t worry about it,’ Glossaryck waved off dismissively. ‘Now, first things first: I require your consent to harm you. For training purposes.’

‘Um, sure. I give my consent.’

‘Good,’ he beamed. ‘Now I will be able to help you.’

‘Why?’ Adam questioned, just now considering this. ‘I’m not your rightful owner. Aren’t you upset that I stole you?’

‘Listen, kid,’ the small man addressed, lowering to sit on the book. ‘I’ve served the Butterfly Family for hundreds of years. And yet, they’re all the same. They conquer and pillage. I’m sick of it.’

‘I _know,’_ Adam stated matter-of-factly. ‘They’re all warmongers and murderers. What does that have to do with me?’

‘When you picked up the book, I could tell you weren’t like them,’ he answered. ‘You’re different.’

Glossaryck flew up to his hand, opening it to reveal the palm inside. One of his eyes comically enlarged as he inspected the star shaped burn mark.

‘How interesting…’ he mused. ‘Well, that explains how you can cast spells.’

‘Yeah,’ Adam agreed abashedly, staring at Glossaryck’s large eye rather than the burn mark. ‘I found a piece of the Butterfly Princess’s wand.’

‘And like the idiotic Mewman you are, you decided you’d touch it,’ the magical creature derided, though there was no hint of derision in his voice. ‘You’re fortunate this turned out in your favour. The shard of the wand you touched altered your physiology.’

‘What do you mean?’ The young man asked immediately, before thinking about it. ‘You mean…the wand’s…a part of me?’

‘Very astute,’ he commended, half-sarcastic half-genuine. ‘You’re not simply casting magic, you _are_ magic. Half-magic, half-Mewman. And very, very, stupid.’

‘Well it turned out alright, didn’t it?’

‘Nope. You’re half-magic. If someone were to speak the Whispering Spell to you, you’d almost certainly _die._ Not to mention the severe strain it puts on your body.’

‘Hold on, the Whispering Spell?’ He asked him, feeling dumb for not knowing. Glossaryck groaned in frustration.

‘Is _this_ what it’s like to teach beginners?’ He wondered aloud. ‘The Whispering Spell is a Dark spell that destroys the caster’s wand. _Break the bond, tear the magic; cleave the stone; stop the magic._ In essence, it destroys magic.’

Adam gulped.

‘And by extension, _me._ ’

‘Yes. Fortunately, this Mewman-magic metamorphosis is rare. ( _Mainly because few were dumb enough to try.)_ I _doubt_ anyone knows that the Spell would work. Besides myself, of course.’

‘So…what spells can I learn?’ The Mewman asked tentatively.

‘Well,’ Glossaryck began. ‘There’s Alteration Magic, Battle Magic, Creation Magic, Dark Magic, Illusion Magic, Restoration Magic, Transmutation Magic…’

Adam folded his arms. ‘Battle Magic first.’

‘Wise choice,’ he deadpanned. ‘Of course, you could just _create_ a spell…’

‘I’ve _tried,’_ said the teenager, rolling his eyes. ‘I’ve been trying to summon these ropes as a spell. I called it “Ropes of Binding”. Nothing happens when I do it.’

‘Really? You must have a small imagination.’

‘I can _imagine_ the ropes perfectly, they just don’t happen.’

‘Hmm…’ Glossaryck thought, rubbing his chin in contemplation. ‘I suppose, considering you’re not naturally gifted with magic, it would be difficult for you.’

‘So what do I do?’

‘Well, the only way to become skilled enough is to practice your magic,’ he answered. ‘First, you’ll have to develop your magical proficiency with these known spells.’

Glossaryck turned to face the Book of Spells, hovering towards it. He motioned his finger, as though turning an invisible page. The pages of the book began to turn, flicking through at a quick pace. Eventually, he stopped on a page.

‘Ah, Moon the Malevolent’s chapter,’ he announced, before moving out of the way so Adam could read the page. ‘The Light Sword Spell. Generates an aura of destructive light around your wand, or in this case, your hand.’

Adam inspected the page.

‘This looks pretty difficult,’ the would-be spell-caster complained.

‘Are you gonna give up before you’ve even tried?’ Glossaryck challenged.

‘What? No!’

‘Well, then,’ he replied, before snapping his fingers. In less time than Adam could perceive, the scenery around him had changed. Inexplicably, he had been teleported to the field above his bunker. He looked back at Glossaryck, who smiled deviously. ‘Cast the spell.’

‘Er…’ Adam mumbled, looking back at the book. ‘ _Light of power, draw to me_ …um… _Fill my_ …do I say hand or wand?’

‘Just go with what you feel is right.’

‘Okay…’ he accepted nervously. ‘ _Light of power, draw to me. Fill my wand with majesty…Flames that burn with mortal cold…a light sword form of blue-white…gold?’_

Adam expected _at least_ a spark, but nothing happened. He looked back at his magical guide hopelessly.

‘No, no, no, you’re just _saying_ the words!’ Glossaryck criticised. ‘You need to _believe_ in them. Call upon the magic within you! Bring forth all your strength!’

Breathing in and out deeply, he tried to do as his guide instructed.

_Janna. Beru. Mom. Dad._

‘ _Light of power, draw to me,’_ he recited, as his eyes began to glow, and the star symbols appeared on his hands. _‘Fill my wand with majesty. Flames that burn with mortal cold. A light sword form of blue-white gold!’_

Ground shook beneath his feet as a long, glowing blue-white sword erupted from his hand. It formed a handle for him to hold, which he clasped with a smile on his face. The sword of light was completely weightless, feeling as though it was fused to his hand. He could feel the burning strength of the blade in his hands, and he had been the one to form this power!

‘Well done!’ Glossaryck congratulated sincerely, before returning to a stoic expression. ‘Now hit me.’

Adam blinked.

‘Sorry, what?’

‘ _Hit_ me.’

The young Mewman couldn’t hold back a snigger as this tiny man asked him to hit him with a sword that was bigger than he was. The blade would pulverise him.

‘Ha. Alright.’

Without much warning, Adam sped towards Glossaryck, who remained floating in the air. He swung the light sword with all the strength he could conjure, bringing the blade crashing down on the small red man.

However, Glossaryck easily conjured a forcefield and blocked the strike. Then, he zipped to the side and sent a large fist of transparent red energy catapulting towards the young wizard at full speed. His energy fist hit harder than his Solarian Blast, propelling him several meters away.

Adam grimaced and held back a groan of pain. Steadily, he got back up.

‘Rule Number One: _never_ underestimate your opponent,’ the magical guide stated. ‘Rule Number Two: _never_ attack first, unless you know what you’re dealing with. Rule Number Three: don’t _presume_ you know what you’re dealing with when you’re fighting somebody you _just_ met.’

‘C’mon, I broke three rules already?’ The novice whined, looking down at his light sword.

‘Yes. Now, again: _hit_ me.’

Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘ _You_ hit me.’

Glossaryck smiled. ‘Now you’re getting it.’

The guide disappeared from his sight and instantly appeared to his right. Adam ducked and slashed his bright sword at him. Glossaryck blocked the strike with a red forcefield. Frowning, Adam lifted the sword again and hit down on the forcefield again. It started to crack the shield, so he tried again.

However, as he threw down the blade again, the red man dropped the shield, teleported behind him, and hit him in the back with a blast of bright blue energy. Adam refused to let it get the better of him, unleashing a flurry of sword strikes against his opponent. Unfazed, Glossaryck summoned a blade of light as well, crimson in colour. Their swords clashed with an ear-piercing shrill.

Their blades locked in a clash of light. Sparks of magic fizzed off from where their swords made contact.

‘You’re better at swordsmanship than I expected,’ Glossaryck admitted patiently.

‘I had…to learn how to…defend myself… _somehow!’_ Adam responded, the stress on his muscles putting a strain on his voice. ‘ _Crimson Comet!’_

Using his spare hand, he directed the spell at Glossaryck’s chest. A great big ball of flames erupted from his palm. It collided with Glossaryck instantly, exploding with ferocity. The magical guide was sent flying back.

‘Two spells at once,’ he noted. ‘Impressive.’

The two engaged in a ferocious sword battle once again. Adam’s skills at swordsmanship managed to remain on par with his opponent. Albeit, it was _much_ harder to even _land_ a hit on him, considering he was far smaller than he was. Nonetheless, at least Glossaryck wasn’t able to land a hit on him.

The small red creature suddenly pulled back from the swordfight. He teleported a fair distance away.

Adam raised an eyebrow, as Glossaryck threw his hand at the ground. A white ball of light hit the ground and there was an instantaneous flash of light. The bright white light engulfed his vision, stunning him long enough for the magical creature to appear behind him and prod him in the back.

‘ _Aaand_ you’re dead,’ Glossaryck said flatly, kicking him to the ground. ‘Rule Number Four: Be ready for _anything. Especially_ where there is magic involved.’

Adam grimaced, trying to look up. Ultimately, he let his head fall back down to the ground, defeated.

‘Ugh, how did I do?’

‘Well, quite well,’ Glossaryck replied. ‘You failed on almost every account, but…well.’

‘Gee, thanks,’ he replied sardonically, rubbing his forehead with his hand. Steadily, he rose to a seating position on the grass. He looked down at his glowing hand of light. _‘Now the's time to cease your glow; let your magic wand be sword no more.’_

Slowly, the sword of light faded away into nothingness. Glossaryck nodded imperceptibly, as Adam looked back up at him.

‘Are we going to have a training routine, then?’ The teenager inquired.

‘Absolutely,’ the magical entity told him, snapping his fingers. A sheet of paper appeared on Adam’s lap. ‘You’ll find the full timetable right there.’

After studying the table for a minute, he frowned.

‘Glossaryck, there must be a mistake on this. It says I’ll be training nonstop for hours every day!’

‘ _Almost_ every day,’ he corrected. ‘You’ll still have free time to relax and do…whatever it is you Mewman commoners do to pass the time.’

The young Mewman stared at him, jaw agape in shock.

‘And…h-how long will I be doing this whole thing?’

‘Hmm…’ Glossaryck thought aloud, rubbing his chin. ‘Well, we need to get to you to the point where you can at least _survive_ against a Butterfly. I’d say…about two years.’

Adam collapsed onto the ground again with a loud thud. _The next two years are going to be SO tough._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a LOT to unpack here. 
> 
> I write quite slowly, but this was honestly faster than usual. Maybe it's because I'm much more invested in this story than other things I've written (that I haven't posted online before). I decided when I began to keep the ambiguity over his contact in the Butterfly Kingdom for only a limited time, because I was gonna kill them off anyway. Yep, Janna was in fact his contact, which I think is fitting, considering how she's able to get everywhere seemingly unnoticed. 
> 
> And now she's dead! R.I.P. Negative Multiverse Janna. Oh, I am very evil, aren't I? Her death was...well, graphic. To be fair, though, I think the archive warning already indicates this kind of thing was going to happen. Janna was Adam's friend in this world, so I imagine it's perfectly logical for him to have a panic attack upon seeing her being murdered. Having said that, Adam's used to seeing murder, so more than likely, had it been a stranger, he would have been fine. It's the personal connection that really hit him.
> 
> Glossaryck making his appearance was fun to write. He's red here, too! It made sense to flip the colours. His characterisation at the moment is more like how he taught Moon - very direct, and helpful. This makes sense to me, considering Adam is entirely a novice and therefore needs to be spoonfed a large amount of information before he can make headway. This isn't to say he will be solving all of Adam's problems, as obviously Adam has to do that on his own if Glossaryck is to be an effective teacher. One neat thing, I suppose, is that you can't claim that this Glossaryck is acting out of character at any point when compared to our Glossaryck, considering this isn't the Glossaryck from our multiverse. That does feel a little cheap, though.
> 
> Dark Star Butterfly makes her first appearance in this chapter too, as you may have noticed. At the moment, she probably seems fairly one-dimensional, but we haven't gotten to know her yet. That being said, I tried to make her both similar and yet vastly different to the main Star. I won't explain too much about her character, considering she's far more interesting if I slowly show you her personality then simply tell you in one giant exposition dump. 
> 
> Anyways, there will be a two year time jump between here and the next chapter. This should help show Adam's improvement in magic. Until then, I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of 'Star vs the Forces of the Negative Multiverse'!


	3. Let Me Adam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not apologising for that pun, just to letcha know. :)  
> Thanks for the hits, kudos and comments everyone!

When Adam described the training timetable as “tough”, he was invariably wrong. No, the training wasn’t simply tough, it was _brutal._ There were times when he thought he’d faint from exhaustion alone, but somehow did not. Adam was even more out of shape than he thought he was. Maybe this had something to do with him having previously spent a lot of time simply hiding in his bunker.

There were days where Glossaryck would have him cast spells whilst hauling heavy weights on his shoulders. Or had him fight him, but with some frustrating additive that made it harder for him to fight the magical creature, like only being allowed to cast a certain type of spell, or having one of his hands tied behind his back.

However, he did make progress. He managed to create his own spell!

Two, actually. Ropes of Binding finally worked for him, allowing him to restrain his opponents. Although, eventually Glossaryck had to disappoint him by telling him how Moon Butterfly’s Neon Whip Spell did a very similar thing. As for the other spell, he called it “Spectral Aim”. It caused numerous spectral arrows to be fired at the target. He was able to control their holistic trajectory while they were in mid-flight at will, too. Excellent for crowd control, really, but it was hard to control any one arrow independently from the others. Unless he chose to summon only a single arrow.

In reality, the Spectral Aim spell was his attempt to replicate what he done to kill all those knights back in the Groundlands. Except, in this case, he would be _summoning_ the arrows, rather than simply controlling pre-existing ones.

He also managed to learn a bunch of new spells. Plus, he expanded upon the Crimson Comet spell. He created an upgraded version, called Crimson Comet Inferno. Instead of summoning one fireball, Crimson Comet Inferno sent _numerous_ fireballs at the target.

Without Janna, rest her soul, Adam initially had no idea what was going on in the Butterfly Kingdom. The most he’d gotten were snippets from other contacts he had in other kingdoms. Lilacia Pony Head in the Cloud Kingdom told him she’d heard that the Butterfly Princess had gone crazy after losing her Book of Spells. He hadn’t been surprised to hear that.

Fortunately, Glossaryck proved useful by introducing him to the All-Seeing Eye Spell. Dark Magic didn’t scare him, so he cast the spell without much hesitation. Sometimes, he even kept the spell going overnight.

Unfortunately, he didn’t really find out much information. While it could show him events, it couldn’t always give him the answers he needed. A sentient mind was sometimes needed for that, and the only sentient mind he had rooted in the Butterfly Castle was now dead. However, the spell did help with surveillance. Queen Moon was no closer to finding him than she had been since he stole it. Almost certainly, this was down to the fact that Moon didn’t even _know_ he had been the one to steal it. Like Star, Moon thought Janna had taken it and paid with her life.

Inevitably, they came to the conclusion that she either didn’t steal it, or she had an accomplice. Star had insisted to a group called the “Magic High Commission” - some kind of magic regulation patrol - that she _knew_ Janna had taken it, and the only explanation was that she had someone helping her. It was an easy conclusion to make from Star’s perspective, considering Janna had never once _denied_ that she had taken the scissors or Book of Spells. It also aided her case when Star found out that the legend around Bon Bon was entirely made up by Janna to get her away from Mewni.

So, rather than argue any further, they opted to take her at her word.

It was not like they were even able to find out who he was or where he was. When Star had cast the All-Seeing Eye to find out, Adam had been momentarily scared. Fortunately, Glossaryck told him that he was able to shield the area from the reach of the spell.

Glossaryck’s magic seemed to eclipse that of any Butterfly. Unfortunately, he was forbidden to harm his liege or any of his previous lieges, without the person’s consent. Nor was he able to artificially bolster his liege’s power, as he was merely a magical guide and trainer. He also seemed to have a higher perception of reality, almost if he knew when his help was necessary and when it wasn’t. His motives and actions often confused Adam, but to the little red man’s credit, he was very direct with his advice.

Not having his contact in Mewni was still crippling though. Janna could get specific details on things, while the Eye could not tell him, only show him.

Soon after he stole the Book, he made a small grave for Janna. He couldn’t bring himself to go back to the graveyard to collect the skeleton, and honestly he didn’t think he should. The girl’s parents would much rather have appreciated knowing what happened to their daughter than the body never being found. Instead, he conjured a stone block and used magic to carve the name into it.

Janna had been his age at the time, he recalled, so he more or less estimated her birth year.

Adam hadn’t started this whole thing without knowing there’d be casualties. Casualties were a foregone conclusion, and a necessary one at that. You can’t win a game of chess without sacrificing a few pieces, after all. It was easy, sometimes, to see those deaths as a means to an end. It was easy to shut out all those feelings of grief and rage and focus on what really mattered. Despite knowing that, knowing that casualties were inevitable and necessary, he still couldn’t get the image of Janna’s burned skeleton out of his mind. It was just something so different when someone he _knew_ died.

The poor girl didn’t deserve to die. Then again, most of the people the Butterflies executed didn’t deserve it. As much as he would have liked to, Adam couldn’t sit around and grieve about his fallen friend all day. Brutal training regimes aside, he had to honour her sacrifice. He couldn’t do that by crying all day.

That wouldn’t be what Janna would have wanted anyway.

Over the two years, Adam had come to see that Glossaryck was right about his estimate. He was not a natural in magic in the slightest. Though he lived in a dimension full of magic, it wasn’t like magic had ever coursed in his veins before. He wasn’t royalty; he was a commoner whose life had already been ripped away from him. The mere fact that he initially was unable to even create his own spells was particularly telling.

Casting Crimson Comet with relative ease (though the spell had at first been very weak) and using magic by instinct was probably just because he was _part_ magic.

Despite his lack of talent in magic, Glossaryck still told him he was impressed by his perseverance. Adam failed his spells a lot, especially in the beginning. Nevertheless, he picked himself back up and tried again. And again. And again. Until he got it right.

Could that be considered perseverance? Or was it simply sustaining foolishness? He’d considered both possibilities with equal pertinence, but he knew it was stupid to claim it was foolish.

He was doing this for a cause. One of the simplest causes. Revenge. Revenge was not foolish.

Casting spells wordlessly had perhaps been the only thing that was actually easy. It was almost identical to speaking the word; it was just that he said the word in his head. Glossaryck said a skilled caster merely had to imagine what they wanted to do, and the spell would work for them without even saying the incantation in their head. Adam wasn’t quite there yet, and sometimes, he found, it was easier to speak the spell aloud than think it.

Now, at the culmination of the two years, the teenager was trying something he had never succeeded in before.

Opening portals to other dimensions. Without the scissors.

The first time he had even found out he could do that was particularly jarring to him.

* * *

Adam was sitting on the grass on his lawn, practicing Levitato on objects that got exponentially heavier. Levitato was one of the simplest spells one could cast, but levitating multiple, heavy objects at once took skill. A skill Adam had previously tried, and failed to learn.

 _Levitato,_ he said in his head.

The lightest weight, 90kg **[1]** , floated into the air. Slowly, he caused the next weight to levitate up in the air. Soon, the next one rose, and then the next. The final weight that remained was the 500kg weight. His hand was shaking and vibrating as he made the gesture to cause it to move up into the air.

A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.

Inevitably, Adam could not handle it. All the weights collapsed to the ground, the blue aura that had surrounded them dissipating, as though they had never even been there to begin with.

Taking a few exhausted breaths to recompose himself, Adam wondered just how much of this he could handle. He’d seen Queen Moon lift whole houses with the same spell. He was struggling to lift a few weights.

His eyes crossed to his lap. He could make out the outline of the dimensional scissors in his pocket. The scissors could open a portal to almost anywhere. Though most dimensions were patrolled by Butterfly knights, there were some that were largely untouched.

Earth was one of such dimensions. Mewni came to some kind of truce with Earth decades ago. There was not much information on the details of it, but Adam had heard whispers about something called “nuclear armageddon”. Apparently, this had been why Mewni had not invaded and taken over Earth at any point.

 _Maybe I need a little break,_ he considered. After all, this had been the first time since he was a child that he could travel to other dimensions. Yet, here he was, with dimensional scissors, and he wasn’t even using them.

Adam reached inside his right pocket and produced the dimensional scissors. Opening them, he was about to use them when he was rudely interrupted.

Inexplicably, Glossaryck decided to appear by his side and smack the scissors out of his hand.

‘Ow!’ Adam complained, rubbing the reddening back of his hand. ‘What the hell did you do that for?’

‘Why are you using the dimensional scissors?’ He asked placidly. The Mewman frowned at him matter-of-factly.

‘To open a portal to another dimension…?’ Adam answered with a sanctimonious tone in his voice.

‘No, I mean, why are you using the dimensional scissors, when you don’t need them?’

‘What do you mean?’ He questioned bewilderedly. ‘How else am I supposed to travel to other dimensions?’

‘…By opening them yourself?’ Glossaryck replied with the same sardonic tone Adam had previously used.

‘I can’t open portals to other dimensions without dimensional scissors, _Glossaryck_.’

‘Yes you can, _Adam._ You just don’t know _how to_ yet. Obviously.’

‘Are you going to teach me?’

‘Yes, but, it’s not as easy as learning a technique.’

‘Why not?’

‘Opening a portal with scissors is like tearing a hole through the universe,’ he explained, doing a scissors cutting action with his fingers. ‘Opening a portal with your magic is like _bending_ space-time and creating a pathway between them. It’s harder, but it’s faster, and does less damage to space-time. The portals _you_ create can also go to _any_ dimension, whereas your scissors cannot. Plus, when you travel using portals you created, you are virtually untraceable.’

‘And I can create them from any range,’ he deduced.

‘Yes, I see you’re catching on,’ the guide complimented. ‘Be careful not to open too many portals at once. You will weaken the space-time continuum.’

‘That sounds… _dangerous.’_

‘Extremely,’ he confirmed with a sceptical raise of his eyebrow. ‘You could destroy the fabric of the universe. Or you could open a singularity to a space outside the multiverse. You could end up anywhere! Then what would you do?’

‘I thought you were trying to _convince_ me to learn it!’

‘I am. By telling you the danger.’

Adam sighed. ‘Can you just tell me how to do it?’

‘I certainly can.’

* * *

That particular conversation had been three _weeks_ ago. Adam had not yet been able to form a fully-fledged portal. Glossaryck never failed to encourage him to try again, though. By “encouragement”, it was more stoic platitudes that it was, in fact, possible. In fairness, Adam believed him when he said he could do it. The magical guide clearly knew what he was talking about, so it would be wise to believe him.

That, and, whenever he tried any of the methods, he managed to conjure _something._ At first it was just a few sparks, but eventually he was able to make tiny, half-formed portals.

So, yet, again, Adam was trying to do it. He was sat in the centre of his room, cross-legged. His arms were half-outstretched at his side, his elbows resting on his thigh. His middle finger and thumb were bent so that they touched, as though he was about to snap his fingers.

Breathing in and out slowly, he kept his eyes closed and began to focus on his target. He imagined the magic within him, a cauldron of glowing yellow liquid. Adam visualized himself reaching deep into the magic and bringing forth the magic soup he was otherwise unable to reach.

In front of from him, a small yellow spark appeared in the air. It started to spiral, like a web, steadily forming a golden portal. Slowly, it began to grow in size.

Adam opened his eyes and smiled at the inchoate portal. He maintained a normal breathing pace as he focussed on maintaining it. As his vision began to narrow on the portal, he failed notice what was moving closer to his ear.

‘What are you doing?’ A voice shouted inquisitively in his ear. Immediately, Adam’s concentration broke.

‘AH!’ He yelped, recoiling away from him. ‘Glossaryck! I almost _had_ it!’

‘No, you didn’t,’ the guide deadpanned. ‘You’re trying _too_ hard to open a portal.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Opening a portal is a simple process,’ he pointed out, miming a portal with his hands. ‘It’s difficult to learn, but once you can, you always will. Don’t overcomplicate it. Reach _in_ to the magic and _pull_ it out. Bend the rope and let the two ends meet.’

‘Whew, okay,’ Adam agreed, taking a breath to recapture his composure. He closed his eyes again and tried to think of the problem more simply.

_Bring together the ropes. Connect this point in space-time to somewhere else. Simple, quick. Don’t overdo it._

Beginning to feel magic pouring into him, Adam reached out and formed a fist. It was a strong rush that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He felt himself reach into the magic and call upon its power, allowing it to flow into his mind. All sense of his surroundings soon faded away, even the mere proprioception of his raised arm. Whether Glossaryck was even still beside him, he could not determine.

Opening his hand completely, he heard a vaguely whooshing sound. He opened his eyes.

A fully-sized bright gold portal had formed in front of him, engulfing most of the room. A one-hundred kilowatt smile spread across his face.

‘I did it!’ Adam exclaimed, rising to his feet. He turned to see Glossaryck had gone. His ebullient expression briefly dropped. ‘Thanks, Glossaryck.’

Slowly, the young warlock made his way towards the portal. He poked his arm through with caution. Smiling, Adam stepped through it. His foot found ground in the form of the grass above his bunker home. Looking up, he once again saw the Great Solarian Storm in the sky. Hundreds of years, that storm had been raging.

Adam turned and balled his fist, willing the portal to close. He opened two more portals, facing horizontally parallel with each other. Opening his right palm, he whispered an incantation, waving his other palm around his hand. A bright, blue ball of light formed in his hands.

Smiling to himself, he threw the ball at the bottom portal. In less than a second, the ball fell out of the top one, propelling it into the one directly below. Steadily, this process repeated, causing the ball to speed up, faster and faster, until the ball disappeared from sight.

Adam laughed at the sight. _Endless entertainment._

He decided to add more portals. Slowly, he moved the portal on the ground slightly to the right, before adding a few new portals adjacent to the previous ones. They were aligned in a vertical zigzag pattern.

The ball of light zipped through the portals, leaving a bright, light blue trail. Adam quickly moved the portals, adding more until they all formed a portal around him. Instinctively, he ducked, as the bright ball flew overhead, like it was in a pinball machine. Faster, and faster, it came out of portals at random, reaching the portal at opposite end of the circle. It created an intricate pattern of sorts.

As the ball was about to fly over his head for the umpteenth time, it was stopped. The magical Mewman looked up to see Glossaryck had caught the ball. The magical guide was floating atop the Magic Instruction book.

‘This is _too_ many portals!’ he warned, with a serious look on his face. ‘Were you not listening? Close them now!’

‘ _Relax,_ Gloss, I got this,’ the amateur dismissed cavalierly, standing up nonchalantly. He raised his hand at a portal with an open palm, before closing it, to will the portal to close.

However, the portal simply remained. It continued to glow an eternal gold light. Adam’s eyes widened. He tried again to no avail.

‘Why isn’t it working?!’ He yelled in frustration.

‘You’ve created too many; you’ve lost control over them!’ Glossaryck yelled.

As he said this, several portals began to pop up around the field. Adam spun around, trying to keep track as more and more portals opened. He tried and tried to close them, but he could not. Even if he could, three more would form to replace it.

Inevitably, there were so many portals that they all coalesced into one. As they joined up, there was a small explosion. What was left behind was a huge, dark purple portal with a lighter mauve spiral.

Air began to get sucked through the portal. Adam felt his feet be pulled out from under him by an invisible force. He landed on the ground with a thud.

‘No, no, no!’ The Mewman shouted, as he felt himself sliding on the grass towards the large portal. He tried to grab onto the mud, but his fingers merely scraped through. Soon, Adam was lifted into the air and pulled back.

 _Ropes of Binding!_ He yelled in his head. Four ropes shot out of his hand, latching onto and wrapping around a sizeable branch of a nearby tree. Adam was caught suspending in the air, the force of the portal and the strength of his ropes clashing, reverberating a shockwave through his body.

‘What do I do?!’ The young man helplessly shrieked to Glossaryck, who was already being sucked through the portal along with the Book of Spells.

‘Nothing…!’ Glossaryck howled back, almost too excitedly. His voice became more echoed as he was swept through the portal, disappearing from sight.

Desperately, Adam reached out and grabbed the ropes with his other hand.

Slowly, but surely, he hauled himself towards the tree. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure what to do once he got to the large tree, but he’d figure that out later. As the teenager pulled on the rope, cracks began to spread across the width of the tree branch.

Eyes widening, he tried to heave himself there faster.

From what the young man could tell, he was about halfway along the length of his Ropes of Binding before he made a catastrophic failure. Though the branch was big, the force of the portal and his strength were formidable also. Despite his attempts to be careful, the magic-Mewman hybrid pulled just a _little_ too hard on branch of the tree.

The tree branch snapped. His grip was lost. The Ropes of Binding disintegrated. And Adam was sent catapulting through the ominous dark portal.

He watched as the evil purple darkness swallowed him whole. As he tumbled through, he could see the brighter sky of Mewni getting smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared from sight. Trying to turn around, to see if there was another end in sight, he found himself frozen in the vacuum.

Adam looked straight ahead again.

‘Oh no,’ he uttered.

These words were all he could muster, before the tree branch hit him in the face and knocked him out cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] This weight would be heavy to humans, but Mewmans have enhanced strength. From Adam’s perspective, 90kg would be light.
> 
> So, a shorter chapter this time. Future chapters are likely to be longer than this one, given that this chapter mainly serves as plot progression over character development. However, it was a nice bit to write, even though it took me a little while to finish. Adam's got himself into quite a pickle - opening a wormhole that leads to who-knows-where. Well, you probably already know where he's going, in which case, I have to say I'm excited to write the next chapter.
> 
> A couple things I feel I should mention. You might think Adam messing about with the portals is a bit out of character, but the guy didn't really get to act innocent for most of his life. You'll learn about his childhood later on, but long story short: he didn't have a fun time. As such, when he finds something new, he can't help but show interest in it. This interest in portals manifested in his messing about with them, leading to him and Glossaryck getting sucked into a large singularity. 
> 
> Additionally, there's not much focus on how Adam is feeling now that Janna's dead, though there are few things about it - it's been two years for him, so he's at the depression to acceptance stage of his grief. I wasn't really intending to focus on his grief so much, as I feel that would detract from the plot a little. Just my opinion, though.
> 
> But yeah, thanks everyone for reading Chapter 3 of 'Star vs the Forces of the Negative Multiverse'! I appreciate the hits and kudos; if you could leave comment let me knowing whatcha think, I'd love that to! It helps to have constructive criticism. No demands on that front, though. It'd just be nice. Anyways, see you all in the next chapter!


	4. A Strange New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam finds himself in the last place he wanted to be.

An indeterminate amount of time had passed before Adam hit the ground with a loud thud. Though instantly painful, it certainly woke him up. He groaned with pain as he opened his eyes to see blackness. Just endless blackness.

Not because he was dead, though.

Feeling the air having been knocked out of him, the teenager moved a hand to prop himself up off the ground. Unfortunately, the branch had hit him harder than he thought. Painfully, he resorted to using his hand as leverage to throw himself onto his back.

The sky was a beautiful, burnt orange colour, not a single storm cloud in sight. He could make out a few, faint stars behind the warm, placating sky. Astoundingly, there were a few moons visible to him, suspended impossibly close to the ground. Three of them were present to count, all a smooth, chalk white colour. One of them even had a ring of asteroids orbiting it, like clerics around a religious stone.

Mewni once had moons.

According to his mother, anyway. She said they had been there hundreds of years ago, and they were colossal shining objects that could inspire any soul, Monster or Mewman. Adam had no idea what those moons looked like. For the Solarian Storm had engulfed them all, ripping them to shreds.

After a few minutes of staring at the sky, the warlock finally decided he had enough energy to move. Sitting up, he groaned as he surveyed the grass of his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed, of course, was the Book of Spells a few feet away. Nonplussed, he crawled over to it and picked it up. Flicking through the pages, Adam tried looking for Glossaryck.

‘Glossaryck!’ He whispered, hopelessly searching for the magical guide. Alas, the man had disappeared. Frustrated, the teenager angrily slammed his fist on the grassy ground. Reluctantly, he slipped the book into his bag.

‘Excuse me?’ A voice asked him politely. Adam looked up to see a Mewman woman staring down at him worriedly. Looking at her up and down, he could see she was a farmer of sorts, a commoner in these lands. ‘Are you alright?’

‘Uh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine,’ he assured, avoiding eye contact. ‘Just had a nasty fall.’

‘Yes, it was difficult to miss.’

‘Why do you say that?’ Adam enquired, furrowing his brow.

‘Do you not know where you are?’ The woman said with concern stringent in her voice. ‘Perhaps you hit your head too hard…’

‘What do you…’ he began, as he looked around.

Surrounding him was some sort of market place. The ground was paved mostly with stone, with patches of grass dotted around. Several plots had numerous flowers and water fountains flowing with magically quietened noise. Stalls were set up around the place, where people could sell various goods. The area was not in shortage of people, many of whom were now staring at him.

In the distance, he could make out endless rows of stone houses and buildings stretching beyond the horizon. One edge of the area he could spot, and it was a huge wall of stone with battlements on either side. What looked to be large guard towers were dotted along and at the corner. Beyond that was a large moat, a chasm of water surrounding him and boxing him in.

He knew this place. Perfectly.

‘Wait, this is…’ Adam tried to say, as he turned around to see what was behind him. ‘…oh no.’

Behind him, he could see it.

Stretching far above him, there were giant towers of brightly coloured stone. Each top was rounded outwards at the base and curved inwards at the top, like giant meringues, or blots of icing on a cake. Different colours and shapes adorned them, painted on no doubt with magic. At the tops of each of them, there were long spires of metal where cyan, yellow or cyan and yellow flags were attached and flowed from in the wind. The central building was a purplish brown colour of stone, arranged in a more cuboidal shape. He could just about make out rings of metal supports surrounding the central tower.

‘The Butterfly Castle,’ Adam whispered in shock.

‘You seem…surprised to be here,’ the Mewman woman noted with a mystified frown.

‘Oh, no, no…it’s…it’s…fine…everything’s fine!’ He stammered, flapping his hand dismissively as he stared at the castle. ‘Just some…routine…portal maintenance. I’ll be on my way.’

Adam turned to his right and threw his arm out. A golden gateway opened a couple meters away. Worriedly, he ran directly into it. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t let him through. Instead, it was like a brick wall. Groaning in frustration, the Mewman took a few steps back and ran into the gateway again.

Alas, nothing happened. Even when Adam pushed against the portal with all his weight, it still refused to let him through. No amount of barging seemed to yield any give.

‘I…I don’t understand,’ he stuttered. Trying to determine the problem, the teenager opened another one a few feet away and connected the two together.

Tentatively, he tried to walk through it again. This time, it allowed him through, and he popped out at the other end of the patch of grass. There was a muted gasp among the staring population.

‘Okay, okay, don’t panic,’ he told himself. ‘You can’t get home the quick way, but you can probably get there the long way.’

Adam looked around the area, trying to find a suitable route to avoid the suspicion of the guards. However, Mewman knights were positioned almost everywhere in the kingdom for as far as he could see. Fortunately, they had not noticed him yet.

‘Have they buffed up the security around here?’ The teenager asked worriedly.

‘Well, naturally,’ the farmer stated with a small chortle. ‘They want to make sure the Queen of Darkness stays locked up in the castle!’ Adam collapsed to the ground in defeat.

‘Alright, no way out,’ he said with a low voice, largely ignoring the comment about the Queen of Darkness. ‘I’m trapped.’

Adam looked up at the huge castle in front of him. He wondered how he hadn’t immediately noticed when he got here. Perhaps because it didn’t cast a shadow over him, because of its magic. Or maybe he was initially just too disoriented to fully comprehend the situation.

 _Wait a minute, the castle!_ He realised. _There must be something in there I can use. I’ve infiltrated it before, I can do it again. Sure it had beefed up security, but I have proper magic now!_

Adam leapt to his feet and ran away into the crowd, towards the Butterfly Castle. He ignored the confused pleas of the farmer and quickly lost himself in the crowd.

Looking up, the Mewman spotted a vantage point in the purple tower that would provide him access. The roof was mostly out of sight of any guards, mainly because most people would notice someone trying to gain access that way.

Unless, of course, the infiltrator could open portals with their mind. Using his magic, Adam tore open a gateway beneath him and allowed himself to fall through. Closing it as soon as he fell through, he caught the metal flag pole to keep balance.

‘Alright…alright,’ he repeated to himself nervous, as he carefully tried to manoeuvre himself down. ‘Don’t look down…don’t look down… _Oh, I looked down!’_

Perhaps this wasn’t the most intelligent way to do it. However, given it was only a matter of time before a guard would recognise him from his wanted poster, it seemed like the best option. Realistically, there was no other way to do it. At least, no other way he could think of.

Steadily, Adam began to loosen his grip on the flag pole so he could move down into the tower. Unfortunately, he was too focused on the pole, and he misplaced his foot and a small loose-fitting stone tile.

He slipped and very nearly plunged to his death.

‘ _Ropes of Binding!’_ The teenager yelled, as his voice elevated with stress. The ropes shot out of his hand and clasped their hands around the metal pole. His feet landed on the side of the castle, allowing him to pass through a glassless window.

 _Okay, I’m in,_ he thought, as he looked around.

He was in a regular castle hallway, it seemed. It was long, and cuboidal. A long carpet adorned the length of the stone floor, pristine and perfectly flat. The carpet was a purple, with a series of green diamonds stretching across it. Underneath the carpet, revealed at the ends, was a polished stone tile design. The walls were painted with a mainly dark, maroon colour, though there was a strip at the bottom running across that had a lighter pigment, adorned with yellow rhombuses.

Just about, he could make out the stone archways on opposite ends of the hallway. They were identical in design, with a small stone border jutting out at the edges, with a pink-yellow triangular zigzag pattern running across. Two more of these archways were present in the wall before him, leading to other hallways and other rooms. One of the arches was bounded by a wooden door with a sign that said ‘Broom Closet’. To his left, the archway at the far end led to the top of a staircase, and the archway to the far right led to a balcony that he was already wishing he had gone through instead. Alas, he had not seen the balcony from where he had been standing.

Every few metres along, or so, a stoic set of shiny knight armour stood with a revoltingly regally proud stance. Each one was angled so that they could hold a shield with the Butterfly crest and a blunt sword pointed directly downwards. A few paintings adorned the walls, depicting a member of the Butterfly family or its relatives, during some despotic conquest. Adam felt his stomach turn at the sight of them. Behind him, he could see the window he came in through. It was a plume, icing-top design like the tops of the buildings in the castle. Along the wall he had come in through, the same window design was repeated numerous times across the length.

Glancing upwards, he could spot the magical lamps in the ceiling. They were dull and dim, primarily because it was daytime and the bright sun shone through the windows regardless.

It was actually rather impressive what you could achieve with magic. The Butterflies could make some exceptional things using its majesty.

 _Wait, no,_ he stopped himself.

How could he think that?

 _This…fortress…of brutality…has been the suffering…the pain…the, the, paragon of fear…throughout the multiverse,_ he thought. _So why am I admiring its beauty?_

‘You there! Stop!’ A voice commanded from the end of the hallway. Adam turned to his left to see a Mewman knight charging at him from the stairwell.

‘I’m stopping!’ He assured, throwing his hands up.

‘Who are you and what are you doing in this castle?’ The knight demanded, pointing his sword at him.

‘Uh…Mrs Norris,’ he blurted out. ‘I’m a…cleaning…lady…?’

‘You don’t look like a lady to me,’ the man deadpanned.

‘Oh my!’ Adam replied, with a false feminine voice. ‘You can’t go around saying that nowadays, young man! It’s highly offensive!’

‘Um…oh…I…apologise, Mrs Norris,’ the knight replied, gently lowering his sword. ‘But you look awfully like a trespasser!’ The Mewman soldier shot his sword up to Adam’s neck. ‘Who are you?! Answer or I may have to use force!’

‘Now, now, let’s not get hasty here…’ he began, waving his surrendering hands to distract the knight for a moment. Abruptly, Adam grabbed his helmet and spoke an incantation.

 _‘Dreamless,’_ he whispered, as his eyes pulsed bright blue-white.

The Mewman paladin instantly collapsed, and would have made a huge racket if Adam had not managed to catch him. Heavy armour would _definitely_ draw someone’s attention. That would not have been wise.

Realistically, he could just as easily have killed him, for he was getting in the way. Ultimately, Adam had decided not to, since the Dreamless Sleep Spell would work quite effectively on him. After all, he was a weaker willed target, so the spell worked.

Groaning and wheezing, the teenager hauled the fully-grown Mewman male across the floor. As he reached the broom closet, he stuffed the knight into the room and carefully set him down. Adam breathed a sigh of accomplishment.

‘You’ll be taking a _long_ nap,’ he decided, as he inspected the man’s armour. It was heavy and clunky, and far too big for him. Not something he could even _attempt_ to hide in. No disguises, then.

Glancing down at his clothing, he _supposed_ he could pass off as a servant or something. He wore dark green combat pants and worn, but still tough, leather boots. On his torso, he had a slim brown jacket on, which covered a dark cyan tunic he’d sewn a few weeks ago. Not the height of fashion, his clothes were rather drab. After all, Adam wasn’t _royalty._ Nor did he want to be.

He looked around the corner. The hallway was empty. From his last visit, he distinctly remembered that most of the Butterfly Castle was large halls, or hallways with very high ceilings. Several of these ceilings, if not all of them, had rafters accessible that could easily support his weight.

Perfect way to stay out of sight.

Ready, he shuffled towards the stairwell at the end of the hallway. One hand moved in the air to maintain his balance, while one held the straps of his bag to prevent it from shaking around. Fortunately, the carpet managed to absorb most of the noise his footsteps made. However, the steps were stone, though and echoed his movements. While it let him know if somebody was coming _up_ the steps, it also rather obviously told the other that someone was coming _down_ them too.

 _I suppose I’ll just have to hope nobody comes up,_ he considered, though Dreamless Sleep was still an option. Provided the target was suitable.

Luckily, nobody _did_ come up the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he peeked through the stone doorway. The room opened up into a large hall, with huge paintings adorning all four walls. A few couches evenly spaced on either side, though nobody was currently occupying them. Two doors stood to his left and right, in the middle of both walls, while opposite him, on the far end, was another stairwell identical to his.

Guards were posted on both left and right sides, opposite each other. There were four of them, spaced evenly so they covered the whole length of the hall. Fortuitously, it was rather dark in the stairwell, so they didn’t spot him.

A long network of rafters clung to the walls and roof above. At ends of the rafters, where a new room was connected there was a stone cut-out where they connected. This was perfect. He could teleport up there, follow the wooden beams, and access virtually anywhere in the castle. Then he could figure out where he actually wanted to go.

So long as he didn’t look down.

Adam tore open a golden pathway in the stone wall beside the stairway.

Slowly, he stepped through and placed a foot on the rafters. They were steeped in shadows, so much so he could barely make out the wood he was standing on. Thankfully, the beam was wide enough so that he didn’t have to look directly down to determine where he was standing.

The gateway closed behind him.

Bending forward ever so slightly, he reached a v-shaped support of wood and held down in with both his hands. Once the diagonal beam was supporting him completely, Adam collapsed onto it, resting his legs on the other.

Summoning the strength to lean over, he stared down at the guards below. One of them was looking up in his general direction. Adam jerked back and remained hidden in the shadows. After a few seconds, he willed himself to look again.

The Mewman guard was now looking level with the ground. The young warlock breathed a sigh of relief. The guard must have noticed the flash of golden light in his peripherals and inspected for a moment. Luckily, he found nothing.

In that moment, Adam could have sworn his heart would burst out of his chest.

Droplets of perspiration slid down his temples, prompting a twitch from his eye. Running his hands through his hair, he felt how matted and damp they were. He couldn’t tell if that was solely from sweat or if the wet mud he hit earlier had had a hand in it.

Truth be told, the young man felt as though he hadn’t had a moment’s rest in years. Even though he remembered lying down on the grass on his lawn no less than half an hour ago, he still felt exhausted. Maybe all that training from Glossaryck was finally catching up to him.

 _Glossaryck!_ He remembered, heaving the bag off his back. Pulling out the ever-heavy Book of Spells, he flicked through them again, hoping to find a certain red-coloured magic man.

‘Glossaryck, c’mon! Where are you?!’ He whispered agitatedly, reaching the end of the book and flipping through the pages backwards. After a few minutes of angry page-turning, Adam finally gave up.

_Okay, still no help._

Home. How was he going to get home? The thought was still permeating his mind. The Butterfly Castle had a _wealth_ of magical items at his disposal. _Something_ had to be there to help him, perhaps a second pair of dimensional scissors. It was entirely probable Moon would have had the scissors replaced by now. It would make up for the mistake he had made of leaving his scissors behind before he fell through the singularity.

 _No,_ he realised, sighing in defeat.

In honesty, as much as he wished the scissors would help, Adam suspected they would not. He could still open portals to areas in Mewni, especially in close range, but for some reason he couldn’t use it to get himself home. It didn’t make sense. When the Mewman had attempted it, he was thinking clear and pristinely of his little purple-shaded bunker in the Farlands of Mewni. He thought of the forests that surrounded the edge of his great grass field he called his lawn.

No matter how hard he had tried, he could not summon a path home. In fact, it didn’t even seem as though he could open a portal to anywhere _outside_ of the kingdom.

The castle had royal stables, the teenager inexplicably recalled. They housed numerous Warnicorns, but also multiple Pegasuses. Pegasuses were much easier to coerce than Warnicorns, one just had to be respectful. If he could find the stables, perhaps he could fly back home.

There didn’t seem to be any _other_ way to do it. Plus, the stables were some of the least heavily-guarded areas of the castle!

 _Though, according to that farmer outside, security’s been tightened up tenfold,_ he remembered.

Sniffing, Adam waved away the negative thought. Even with tighter restrictions, he reckoned he’d still be able to find one.

_After all, who’s stupid enough to try and steal a PEGASUS?!_

Maybe Adam was being so optimistic purely because of how desperate he was. Usually, he was not so idealistically thinking. This whole situation had been his fault, after all. If he hadn’t gotten so trigger happy with his portalling, if he hadn’t lost himself in his first sense of childish ignorance in years, then he wouldn’t be here right now.

Nonetheless, it was worthless to berate himself now. He’d made a huge mistake; that much was obvious. All he could do now was to try and get out of here and solve the problem. That’s what Glossaryck would be telling him right now.

Breathing in and out deeply, Adam finally decided to put away the book and advance onwards.

Standing up, he gingerly let go of the wooden support beam. Very, very cautiously, the Mewman began to place one foot in front of the other. He was hunched over uncomfortably, though he was moving reasonably fast. At this pace, he could make it to the stables in an hour, maybe.

An hour was a long time, but it was worth it to be undetected. The stables…the stables were found on the lower levels, he recalled. Adam only had a vague sense of direction, but something was drawing him into the room to his left.

There was a splitting point in the wall a few meters away. The rafter beam connected to it and led to another room. A room he just _knew_ he had to go through there. Carefully, he moved towards it, and turned to face it.

Looking down, he could see it was another hall. However, this one was much narrower than the previous one, though the designs remained a similar language. Moving across into the hall, he looked down to see some more guards standing rigid in their positions.

There was no visual indication of where to go. Adam had no idea why he felt he needed to go this way specifically. Only the distinct _gut_ feeling that he _needed_ to be here had answered his question. As though the magic inside him was calling for him to stay. Almost like it wanted to show him something.

The thought was broken by the sound of a door opening on one end of the room. It was very tall, white set of double doors with golden accents. It had a few purple gems embedded into the handles. So very Butterfly.

There was a voice echoing through the halls now as the doors opened.

‘I’m just saying, Marco, they could really use some of your _expertise!’_ A voice persisted. That was a voice Adam almost certainly recognised.

‘I don’t think your chefs would appreciate some random teenager telling them how to do their job,’ a voice, whom he could only assume to be Marco, replied stubbornly.

‘But you’re not some “random” teenager!’ The other person argued, as she stepped into the room. ‘You’re my squire!’

It was Star Butterfly. _Star Butterfly!_

She was wearing something he hadn’t seen her in before. Typically, the princess wore a very gothic outfit, mostly black and pink. This was different. It was…sickeningly bright. She wore a sea green dress with short sleeves and a white collar, as though she were attending a school. Or day-care. The sleeves and skirt were laced in white, with a little purple octopus in the centre. She had oddly mismatching orange and pink leggings, and dark magenta boots with a rhino motif. A red horned headband with devil horns rested on her head. _That_ hadn’t changed, apparently. That and the long, wild blonde hair that _must_ get in her eyes _constantly._

He knew she had some kind of penchant for bright colours, but only in the sense of the enjoyment of destroying something others considered pretty.

This…this was just sickening.

‘I don’t think I should be using my status to demand respect from people,’ Marco told her disapprovingly. ‘You don’t _demand_ respect, you _earn_ it.’

‘Aw, Marco,’ Star replied sadly, pouting cutely at him. ‘You’re too gosh darn nice!’

‘Huh,’ he remarked, shrugging his shoulders. ‘Maybe I am. Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.’

‘Will you at least think it over?’ Star asked sweetly. ‘Your nachos are _sooo_ good…’

‘Star –’

‘ _Pleaseee?’_ She asked again, employing the ruthless puppy-dog eyes. Marco seemed to last a few seconds before ultimately caving in.

‘Ugh, _fiiine._ I’ll think about it.’

‘Yay!’ The magical princess exclaimed, practically bouncing into a hug around her squire.

Put simply, Adam couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Star Butterfly…jumping around in exuberance, while the rest of Mewni had to suffer under her whimsical temper tantrums. She was smiling and laughing with this guy while thousands of people suffered! Was there truly no depth she could sink in her bitter callousness?

_She MURDERED Janna! She killed my BEST FRIEND! They’re dead because of HER and all she can do is bicker about what happens to be on the menu that day?! Where’s Beru now, Star? He’s a corpse in the ground and you’re just gonna joke around like it never happened?_

Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised.

Star Butterfly was the kind of person to vaporise someone for annoying her. The kind of person to incinerate a castle full of innocent living beings just to prove a point about her power. The kind of person to pillage villages of innocent Monsters when she was only _thirteen_ years old. Someone who genuinely _enjoyed_ watching people be broken down to their last tether and torn apart until _nothing_ was left!

There were so many ways he wanted to end her life that it was depressing he could only choose just one. Maybe he could incinerate her like she did Ludo. Or perhaps blast her with a concentrated Solarian Blast, reducing her to a skeleton. Just like she did to Janna. Then he could watch her receive a taste of her own foul medicine.

No, that wasn’t a good idea. Incinerating her was quick, instantaneous and, worst of all, painless. He wouldn’t get to watch her suffer. He’d just see her alive one moment, and dead the next. Like flipping a light switch. He wouldn’t be able to savour the moment of her death – the death of the most psychopathic of the Butterflies.

Oh, how he’d love to watch her burn alive.

He’d listen to her screams for help and meet them with fierce denial. He’d stand there and watch as the skin melted off her body, as her stupid hair was set aflame. He’d listen to her screeches for the pain to end as the flames seared through her muscle and torched her bones. True justice was watching the magical princess be reduced to a charred carcass that had been burnt so much you could hardly recognise it.

Even better, he could tear her limb from limb. Watch her cry out in agony as the blood tsunami crashed into the ground below. He could break some bones first, to soften her muscle before he ripped her to shreds. Then finally, as she began to lose consciousness, crying out for it to stop, he would reach down and rip her head off. And mount it on a pike.

Because how did she respond, when asked to help? How did she reply as she slaughtered innocent people? With stone cold satisfaction.

Over the past two years, Adam had had little time to mull over his hatred for the warrior princess. He’d been so focussed on training; he’d kept all those emotions bottled up. Now, after seeing her again, he could barely contain the unbridled fury in his heart for the callous Butterfly.

 _If I ever get my hands on her…_ he thought, before immediately stopping himself. _Wait a minute! She’s right there, and she doesn’t know I’m here. If I can follow her into a room with minimal guards…I’ll have the element of surprise._

Admittedly, the thought was tantalising. After all, Glossaryck had said he’d be ready after two years, and he certainly _felt_ ready. All it really took was a well-timed blow. He knew Star Butterfly, this was not the first they me, so attacking her wouldn’t contravene Rule Number Two, because it followed Rule Number Three.

The element of surprise was a crafty one, at that.

Escaping would have to come later, he decided. Opportunity had knocked. In fact, if he managed to take out Star, then Adam would be able to die happy. If he weren’t able to escape, then at least he would have rid the world of a cruel murderer.

Narrowing his eyes, Adam watched as Star Butterfly and her squire walked across the hall. They were engrossed in deep conversation, still, allowing him to follow the two of them.

‘Oh, you won’t _believe_ what Higgs did today!’ Marco exclaimed, throwing his arms up in frustration. Star opened her mouth to speak, but the squire continued regardless. ‘I put my dirty uniform down the chute and _Higgs_ went into the Wash, _stole_ it and threw it into the garbage!’

Star met his exasperations with laughter. ‘Can’t say I’m _surprised_ she’d do that!’

‘I had to go diving in the trash compactor just to find it!’ He persisted, folding his arms pointedly.

‘Ohhh, so _that’s_ why you stunk when I saw you!’

‘I washed my hoodie _three_ times and I _still_ don’t think I managed to get the smell out.’ Marco worriedly wiped down his red hoodie, hoping to somehow remove any odour that may have remained.

‘ _Relax,’_ Star brushed off. ‘You smell _fine.’_

Marco blushed at the mostly innocent comment, but kept it out of Star’s sight.

‘Thanks,’ he accepted awkwardly.

 _Pointless conversation,_ Adam thought, almost yawning at their antics. _The whole world is dying and your clothes are the only thing you can think about?!_

‘So…you haven’t told me where we’re going yet,’ the young squire pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

‘Ugh, Mom wants to see me,’ Star complained, grimacing at the idea. ‘It’s probably about the resigning of the Mace Treaty in a month.’

‘The what?’

‘The _Mace_ Treaty,’ she repeated. ‘Between us and the Mace Family in the West. The King’s been succeeded by his son, so they have resign the whole thing again.’

‘And the King’s son will sign it?’ The teenager enquired curiously.

‘ _Probably,’_ she waved off irritably. ‘It’s just politics, Marco. It’s hardly that interesting.’

 _The Mace Family?_ Adam questioned, as he followed the two into the next room. _Never heard of them. Wait a minute, since when did the Butterfly Family sign treaties?_

This room was large, but there were fewer guards this time. However, the increased security was giving him the impression there was a guard patrolling nearly _every_ room in the castle. Not exactly opportune for him when he wanted to strike her down.

Nevertheless, Adam continued following Star Butterfly and her ( _human?)_ friend through the various rooms of the castle. He was sure he remained perfectly hidden, but he noticed that the princess was getting more and more anxious to get to wherever she was going. Almost, as though she was avoiding something. There was no way Star had spotted him, so what was the problem?

Adam knew something was up when the girl took a hard right into some random room that was completely empty. Even so, he still followed the two into the room and watched.

‘Star? What’s up?’ Marco asked, as she slammed the doors behind her. The girl stomped into the middle of the room and surveyed every angle visible to her.

 _Profeci densis!_ He yelled desperately in his head at the double doors. The two golden handles glowed white for a moment, before dulling back down to usual.

‘Marco,’ she said with a low voice. ‘For the past fifteen minutes now, I’ve been getting this…feeling. Like we’re being… _followed.’_

‘Followed? We’re in the safest place on Mewni,’ he pointed out. ‘Sounds like just a _feeling_ to me.’

‘No!’ The girl protested exasperatedly. ‘This feeling…it’s magic. Like my magic is trying to _tell_ me something.’

She ignored Marco’s sceptical look. Fishing out her wand from her star-shaped purse, she stared at it. The central crystal in the middle was flashing blue, pulsing brightly as if trying to tell her something. Clearly, it hadn’t done _that_ before.

A sharp pain split through the side of Adam’s hand. He covered his mouth with his arm to muffle the short groan he made. Glancing down at his hand, he stared at the glowing yellow star-symbol pulsing in it. It was flashing in rhythm with Star’s wand. Adam’s eyes widened.

_Well, she knows I’m here. It’s now or never._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fight, fight, fight!
> 
> Thanks for reading the fourth chapter of this story! Hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Yes, Star and Adam will be engaging in a fight next chapter! Should be fun, though Adam is perhaps too confident in himself. Gloss said it would take two years to SURVIVE a Butterfly, not kill one! Well, we'll see how it goes. The mainstream Star IS weaker than the evil Star, so maybe he has a shot at beating her? Guess you'll have to wait and see.
> 
> This chapter definitely took a lot longer to write than the other ones. You might have noticed. Still, I managed to finish it in a decent amount of time. I think updating every week is going to become a challenge, though. You'll have to expect infrequent uploads; I often get busy with schoolwork and the like. Honestly, sometimes I just lose interest in what I'm writing and stop. I've planned out most of this story, though, so hopefully that won't happen.
> 
> In case you were wondering, the profeci densis spell Adam cast is known as the Locking Spell. I made it up (obviously) but it's a spell that's found in both multiverses. It was made by Comet Butterfly, Moon's mother. Just a bit of lore for ya. Correspondingly, there is an Unlocking Spell too. Technically, these are both runes (the concept of magical runes will become more important later), but they can vary in strength and magical resistance. 
> 
> I decided to inject some comedy in this chapter, because I felt it was too depressing in the initial concept. I mean, there are several paragraphs detailing how Adam would like to murder someone in the most excruciating ways. He's not a complete debbie-downer, but he ain't exactly the class clown. It remains to be seen if anyone thought it was remotely comedic, but hey, I tried, sorry if it's cringe. 
> 
> I hope I've gotten Marco and Star in character and convincing. It would be a real shame if I didn't, because that would put a damper on the rest of the story. Starco is real, by the way. This fic ain't focussing on relationships, but there will be a chapter or two which will include a bit of romance. Adam, however, will not have any romantic relationships. He's asexual and aromantic - it's not really his thing. That's not to say he disapproves of that stuff; it's just never occurred to him and he's not interested in having a relationship for himself. In the process of Starco, I'll try not to bash Tom too much - Tom's awesome, but sometimes he really annoys me. Like when he kept comparing himself to Marco...like, no, Tom, be confident in yourself stop comparing yourself to another guy. 
> 
> I've rambled on for long enough. I hope to see you all in the next chapter, which has one of my favourite chapter titles. See ya then!


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